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A BUNDLE OF LETTERS 
FROM OVER THE SEA. 




This book may be obtained through any bookseller in 

the United States, for tivo dollars, or will be 

mailed, postage paid, on receipt of that 

amount b-g the publishers. 



A BUNDLE OF UETTERS 

FROM OVER THE SEA 



BY 



%om0t 25* Itlotim^on 



D 

"/ 
^ 



■'7 



j^' 



" Visions of the days departed 
Shadowy phantoms fill my brain " 



BOSTON 




J. G. CUPPLES COMPANY ^ 
STfje 2Sacfe Bag iSookstore 

94 BoYLSTON Street 



COPYRIGHT, 1S89, 
Bx LOUISE B. ROBINSON. 



All rights reserved. 






PRINTKD BY J. G, CUPPLKS COMPANY, 




Dedicated by the Author 

€0 i$tt St^otfjec 



CONTENTS. 



Page 
Peeface ix 

Letter I. ....... 1 

I am off. On the sea. 

Letter II . .13 

Liverpool. Chester. Eugby. Leamington. 
Stratford-on-Avon. Kenilworth. Warwick. 

Letter III. 2P 

London. 

Letter IV - ... 67 

Paris. 

Letter V 127 

Ambrieau. Genera. 

Letter VI. 143 

Chamouni. Mer de Glace. Tete Noire. 

Letter VIL 157 

Martigny. Chillon. Berne. Interlaken. 

Letter VIII 171 

Lucerne. Altorf. The Rigi. Zurich. Schaff- 
hausen. 



Vm CONTENTS . 

Pass 
Letter IX. ....... 191 

Strassburg. Baden Baden. Willbad. Carls- 

ruhe. Heidelberg. 

Letter X. 217 

Mayence. Wiesbaden. The Ehine. 

Letter XI. 233 

Cologne. 

Letter XII 247 

Utrecht. Amsterdam. 

Letter XIII 263 

The Hague. Eotterdam. Brussels. 

Letter XIV 281 

Antwerp. 

Letter XV. . 291 

On Shipboard. New York. Boston. 



PREFACE. 

In presenting ray little hook to the public, 
I feel that I should apologize for so doing, 
instead of introducing it; for at the time my 
letters were written I had no idea of publish- 
ing them. Since my return, hoivever, several 
friends who had read thetn have assured me 
that they greatly enjoyed them, and felt that 
others would do so, also, had they the oppor- 
tunity. The letters have, at least, the merit 
of beijig fresh and honest impressions of the 
places described, as they were written on the 
spots. Rememberiiig how eagerly I have al- 
ways read letters of travel, I sincerely hope 



X PREFACE. 

that mine may prove a source of pleasure to 
some — to those who have been over the same 
ground, and to many who have the pleasure 
in anticipation. I am aware that the route 
I describe is a well-worn thoroughfare, but 
every eye has its own perspective, and different 
views of the same pictures assist the sight-seer 
in comprehending the whole. Therefore, I 
here beg the charity of all into whose hands 
this little book may fall. 

L. B. R. 

Hotel Oxford^ Boston^ 

December 20, 1889. 




A BUNDLE OF LETTERS 



FROM OVER THE SEA. 



LETTER I. 

CuNARD EoYAL Mail Steamship MvuHa, 
Mid-Ocean, June 12. 

Well, was not this starting for Europe in a 
liurry ? I left Boston Saturday, June 9th, at 
five A. M., only deciding the day previous to 
go. A number of letters and telegrams, from 
New York, urging me to join a delightful 
party who were to make the journey, proved 
to be too much of a temptation to accept the 
change I so much needed, to resist. For sev- 
eral previous seasons I have seen friends off, 



2i A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

honestly glad to have them enjoy so much, but 
after awhile enthusiasm in the pleasures of 
others, who enjoy much and leave you behind 
to be glad for them, grows dull, like cham- 
pagne long uncorked, not much sparkle to it, 
* for all work and no play makes Jack a dull 
boy.' A hurried packing ; good-by letters ; 
messenger boys running here and there; a 
turning of the keys ; and I am off. To my 
maid, to the elevator boy, to the expressman 
and the coachman, I excitedly said, '■ I am going 
to Europe,' but their faces did not light up 
with delight as I expected they would ; and I 
thought — How unappreciative we all are, 
after all, of other people's enthusiasm. The 
train was a slow one, but the only one that 
could possibly get me to New York in time to 
take the steamer. Some trouble with the 
machinery of the engine detained us, and I 
spent the time, while the cars were stopped, 
praying to be resigned, if I had got to be dis- 
appointed, as, for a while, matters looked as if 
it would be impossible for me to reach my 
friends on the hour for the ship to sail. But 
prayers and the work of an ingenious Yankee 



LETTER I. 3 

mecliaiiic carried us through. It ^^^ after 
3 p. M. when we rolled into the Grand Central 
Depot. I rushed into the nearest cab like one 
mad — urged, coaxed, and fee'd my driver, who 
quickly comprehended the situation and ran 
his horses to the best of their speed, and did 
get me to the Cunard Wharf about ten minutes 
before the Etruria moved ; but it was in truth 
a ' John Gilpin ride.' My friends were on 
the lookout with anxious eyes, and, when they 
caught a sight of me, greeted my appearance 
with shouts of delight. After the excitement 
was over, we settled down into an ' all right ' 
atmosphere and looked about. The sights 
that met my eyes I. shall never forget. The ^ 
huge ship with the bright-colored flags flying, 
the hundreds of people crowded on her, hun- 
dreds more on the wharf, throwing kisses, wav- 
ing handkerchiefs and adieus, everybody loaded 
with flowers, many laughing and more crying. 
^ God bless you. Take care of yourselves. 
Write soon and often,' were the oft-repeated 
words we heard. The planks are drawn, the ^ 
band struck up ' The Girl I left behind me,' 
and off we steamed down the beautiful harbor 



4: A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

of New York, fast leaving the shores of 
America in the distance. I thought of all the 
loved friends we were sailing away from, in 
the body but not in spirit, and asked our dear 
' Father in Heaven ' to take care of us all. I 
was tired, so dined early, settled things a little 
in our state-room, and retired. I went imme- 
diately to sleep, without a care, like a weary, 
confiding child on its mother's breast, and did 
not once awaken until nine the next morn- 
ing — Sunday. My rest was perfect, thus 
'rocked in the cradle of the deep,' while the 
waves sung to me their sweet lullaby. I arose 
feeling thoroughly refreshed — rubbed my 
eyes well to be convinced that I was not 
dreaming, and that in reality I was far out at 
sea. We have a fine state-room ; two wide 
berths and a sofa ; and only F. and I its occu- 
pants ; plenty of room for our things, and two 
looking-glasses ; so we shall be sure to keep 
amiable on this trip. The Etruria is a beauti- 
ful and an immense steamer. Four hundred 
persons make up the crew and she takes fifty 
engineers. We have a music room, a library, 
a large saloon, reception rooms, dining room, 



LETTER I. 5 

etc., all finely and conveniently furnished and 
spacious. We have six hundred passengers on 
board, all first class, and a fairly good-looking 
crowd notwithstanding there are but few from 
Boston. We take no secondclass passengers 
or emigrants. So far the weather has been 
charming. We settle ourselves in our steamer 
chairs in the most deliciously idle and comfort- 
able positions, E. tucks his numerous nice wraps 
about us, for the air is keen but most whole- 
somely pure and sweet, and we give ourselves 
up both body and mind to perfect rest and 
repose, such as no condition on land can bring. 
I even find myself wishing that the steamer 
would not speed on quite so rapidly. I am afraid 
we shall sight land too soon. On shipboard, 
the shghtest incident becomes to all a matter 
of great interest. A ship in the distance, or a 
whale's back, will cause as much excitement as 
Barnum's circus in a country town. We have 
seen two steamers far away, many sea-gulls and 
Mother Gary's chickens, and a school of por- 
poises followed us a long distance, creating 
much amusement. We have two dukes on 
board, a real lord and a lady, but they look 



b A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

very like the rest of us mortals, and seem to 
do quite as much stretching, yawning, walking, 
and eating. We have met here several old 
friends, and have made some new ones. 
Everybody seems inclined to be agreeable and 
social. I cannot imagine how any one could 
ever think a sea voyage dull. I get so inter- 
ested in all about me, that their interests and 
purposes become my own. A bright little 
Cuban miss confided to me that she was going 

,^ to travel for a year, because her rich father had 
taken to himself a new companion younger 
than herself, and she could not stay at home 
and see the young girl in her mother's place. 
We have six school-girls on board with their 
chaperone, and a jolly good time they are hav- 
ing. School-girls are the same everywhere. 

J A bride and groom sit at table near us, trying 
to act as if they had been always married, but 
are really continually revealing their new con- 
dition. Ah ! ^ the old, old story,' but ever 
new. A gentleman from the West, who had 
been cabled to ' hurry over — wife sick,' walks 

% the deck with a face that tells of the sad heart 
he carries. How we all sympathize with him, 



LETTER I. i 

and yet are so helpless in comforting him ! 
We had a fine concert in the grand saloon last 
evening, for ^ sweet charity ; ' and many of the 
ladies honored the occasion by changing their 
travelling dresses for evening costumes. Mile. 
Zelie de Lussan sang two pieces most charm- 
ingly, and on encore gave us ' Coming thro' 
the Rye ' and ' Dors mon ange.' She is a 
great favorite with all on board, and no wonder, 
for she endeavors in her sweet way to add to 
the happiness of all. She was enthusiastically 
applauded. We had some fine instrumental 
music on both violin and piano, and ' Tony ' 
Pastor was irresistible in his manner of render- 
ing several comic selections, and very kind to 
repeat them in acknowledgment of hearty 
applause. Our young ladies passed around 
the hats, into which coin was quickly deposited 
to the amount of over three hundred dollars. 
Rev. Dr. H., of New York, made a few remarks. 
He is a forcible, impressive speaker and with 
a physique equal to our own Trinity Rector. 
He also has exhibited a commendable spirit 
in helping make the time pass agreeably for 
all with whom he has come in contact. Editor 



8 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

P. is also amongst us, leaving his ^ New York 
World' behind for a time, but not under a 
bushel. Our table and the service are excel- 
lent; and what gormandizers we are to be 
sure ! Hungry as sharks every meal, notwith- 
standing the hourly extras of bouillon and 
crackers on deck, and the daily treats from our 
own boxes of fruit, wine, and bon-bons. If 
any one should now ask me ^ What is the chief 
end of man ?' I should honestly answer. To eat 
of all, at least, on board our ship. Poor E. 
looks upon his chest of medicines for sea-sick- 
ness as a lost investment ; stocks way down — 
not even a shadow of an excuse yet for open- 
ing it. Miss C, the noted beauty, is on board, 
but her fair face is closely enveloped in veils, 
that the sun and wind may not be too familiar. 
One loses much not to take the whole of this 
blessed, invigorating air, and look out unham- 
pered on the exquisite sky and cloud effects 
above us, and the artistic blending of blues 
and greens on the waves beneath. 

Liverpool, England, June 17, 1888. — We 
first saw land yesterday morning, very early. 
It was a perfect morning, clear and warm, and 



LETTER I. y 

when we emerged from our state-room and 
made our way on deck, we found the greater 
portion of our comrades ahead of us, with their 
glasses in hand, peering toward the rocky coast 
of not far away * Old Ireland.' It is a rough, 
rugged shore, with here and there a light- 
house, built as if to last for ages, on rocks, 
strong and high, and all colored white with 
some black trimmings. Occasionally an old 
castle is seen. The fields of flax, colored with 
all the shades of green, are very beautiful, and 
add much to vary the scene. 

We have had, as one of our daily compan- 
ions crossing over, an Irish gentleman of much 
intelligence and culture. He is a large land- 
holder, and has a fine home not very far from 
Dublin ; has been travelling some in America, 
but mostly in the Western States. I have 
gained much information from him of his 
country and its people. He was amazed at 
the extent of our own land, but with all his 
intelligence coidd not comprehend everything 
connected with our divisions of country clearly, 
and said to me — * Boston, that city is very 
near Massachusetts, is it not ? ' He admired 



10 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

American ladies, and thought * Mrs. Cleveland 
should reign in Washington longer.* His 
brogue was fascinating, and he talked much 
of the Pot-o-mac River. 

In speaking of the poor of his country, I did 
not hesitate to ask him how he and gentlemen 
of his kind could endure having the poor so 
oppressed by the rich landlords ; that to me it 
seemed most cruel. With a sympathetic sigh 
he replied, * If you will visit me, I will show 
to you more than I can tell you.' 

Our big steamer stopped, for the first time, 
for the passengers who were booked for the 
* Green Isle ' to get on to the little tug which 
came puf&ng down from Queenstown, and we 
said good-by to many of our fellow-voyagers 
reluctantly. A large mail was thrown on 
board also for Ireland, carrying undoubtedly 
happiness and help into many homes. 

On again we started, and reached Liverpool 
at one o'clock a. m. We certainly had a per- 
fect trip over, and the Etruria and her watch- 
ful, careful commander, Captain Cook, will have 
ever a grateful place in my memory. Blessed 
be the gift of memory ! The one thing that 



LETTER I. 11 

holds precious treasures that cannot be taken 
from us ; from which we can at all times sum- 
mon the delights and joys of the past, without 
money and without price. 




LETTER II. 

We landed at seven a. m. Were detained but 
a short time at the Custom-house. The ordeal 
of examining luggage there, proved much less 
than we expected; one pleasant official, re- 
marking that he did not wish to disturb my 
nicely packed bags, would pass them over if I 
would swear that I had no tobacco or cigars. 
Hasty good-bys, cards and kisses exchanged, 
and we were soon whirled to our hotel — the 
Adelphi. What a transition ! We have nice 
rooms, and a pretty maid, with a demi-trained 
white cambric dress on, to wait upon us, look- 
ing as fresh as a daisy. After breakfast, we 
went to drive about the city, the largest sea- 
port in the world. The docks are many miles 
in length. We visited the museum, St. George's 



14 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

Hall, and looked into one or two churches. 
The city looks solid and business-like, but not 
attractive. The suburbs are more so, and have 
fine trees. No more horse-cars for us, but 
trams, with seats on top, which we very much 
like. After luncheon, we crossed the Mersey 
in a ferry, to Birkenhead, and there took steam 
cars for Chester, thirty miles away. Chester ! 
old, odd, quaint, red-walled Chester ! We 
hurried to the Cathedral, to be in time for 
service, which proved to be a choral one, of 
great beauty and sacredness, and the first 
words that greeted us were sweetly sung, and 
impressed us in a stronger way than ever did 
the same words before : — 

' Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Doth his successive journeys run; 
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.' 

Of this cathedral you have read many descrip- 
tions, and yet one can have but little idea of 
it without seeing it. As I sat in the chancel, 
and looked about me, I felt as if I belonged 
to the past. There seemed to be a spirit of an- 
tique rest and repose pervading the whole inte- 



LETTER II. 15 

rior. After service, we peeped into the nooks 
and corners of the old church, and then out 
into the rich bahuy air of this perfect day in 
June, and walked on the old wall which was 
built to protect the town. We looked from 
the windows of the tower, where Charles I. 
stood and saw his army defeated by Cromwell. 
How many reminiscences of our lessons in 
history at school these old towns bring up ! 
An open carriage stood near us, into which we 
jumped, and were driven through the grounds 
and to the home of the Duke of Westminster, 
who is, I believe, the richest man in England. 
As it was Sunday, we could not be admitted to 
the palace, but enjoyed the drive through the 
perfect grounds immensely. The town con- 
tains a beautiful park, in which is a fine statue 
of the father of the present duke. The nar- 
row streets and the odd-looking old houses in 
the oldest part of the town were intensely 
attractive to me, so, leaving the rest of my 
party to wander in the park, I strolled off 
alone. I pulled the latch-string of a little 
house, and a kindly faced old lady appeared. 
I asked for some water, and she urged me to 



16 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

come in and rest, and I lingered a long time, 
so interesting to me were her tales of Chester, 
where she had all her life lived, not even hav- 
ing been so far away as ^ Lunnon town.' The 
custom of ringing what used to be the ' cur- 
few bell ' is still kept up. A bell rings at 
nine p. m., and if maids are out alone after that 
hour they may be arrested. '■ A good custom 
it is,' said the old ladyj 'God made the night 
to sleep, and not for gadding.' Back to 
Liverpool, and good-by to E. He remains 
here, and we go to-morrow to Leamington 
Spa. 

June 18. — At seven a. m. we left Liverpool. 
The morning was a perfect one, and our train 
ran slowly, perhaps purposely that we might 
see beautiful old Eng-land. And beautiful it 
is ! Such green fields, such magnificent trees, 
such hedges, ivy, hawthorn, and a tangled 
mass of sweetbrier and wild rose. Houses 
covered with ivy and roses. Roses in bloom 
everywhere, little plots of ground around the 
stations filled with roses — red, white, and yel- 
low, their sweet fragrance pouring into the 
windows of our car. The flocks of sheep, the 



LETTER ir. 17 

herds of cattle in the fields and meadows, 
restino^, or cooiino' their feet in silver streams. 
how beautiful this all is ! The blue sky of 
to-day seems so near us. Glimpses of cathe- 
drals and palatial homes greet us. The fields 
of wild poppies and wheat add brilliancy to it 
all. Surely we must be in the highly culti- 
vated, most beautiful part of England ! But 
no, it is all the same. There are no rough 
spots in England, no stony pastures, no broken 
fences : it is all a beautiful garden from one 
end to the other. F. says almost too * spick 
and span ; ' but to me, perfection. Our first 
sto23 was at Rugby. Ascertaining that we 
must remain there two or three hours^ and 
remembering ^ Tom Brown,' we set out to see 
the world-renowned school. Its buildings are 
large and castle-like. Any man who has re- 
sided in the county two years is entitled to send 
his sons to the school, to be educated free of 
expense. There is a pretty chapel here, and 
in the transept a monument to the revered 
Dr. Thomas Arnold. One of the stained-glass 
windows is also in memory of him, and the 
words beneath it seemed to me particularly 
touching and appropriate : — 



18 



A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 



^And Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou 
hast seen me thou hast believed : blessed are they who 
have not seen, and yet have believed.' 

The name of Arnold seems to be revered by 
every one in Rugby, and his best monument is 
the school for which he did so much. He 
buried creeds and lived by the Golden Rule. 

Our next halt was at Leamington, and here 
we are, feeling quite like citizens. The town is 
crowded with visitors, and we were most for- 
tunate in findino- rooms at a small hotel which 

o 

had just been vacated by Americans. This 
town is a health resort and a fashionable and 
popular one. There are four medicinal springs, 
each one different from the others in remedial 
properties. The streets of the town are broad, 
shaded by grand old trees that form perfect 
arches for long distances. The residences are 
immense and very handsome, some quite pala- 
tial ; but seeing 'To Let' on many of them, 
we came to the conclusion that they were too 
expensive for the owners to live in, but were 
afterwards told that the richest and most culti- 
vated people of the place rent their houses for 
almost fabulous sums, for the months of May 



LETTER II. 19 

and June, and take that time to travel them- 
selves, on the Continent. Near the royal pump- 
room, at the beautiful Jephson Gardens, on the 
banks of the river Leam, in the little parks, in 
the streets, and everywhere else here, we see 
bath-chairs on wheels — people of all ages, from 
infants to aged men and women, being drawn 
in them by their servants. I thought at first 
they must all be invalids from some cause, but 
it seems not : many are being trolled about in 
this manner for enjoyment. The drives in the 
town and about its suburbs are of unrivalled 
beauty. We stood under the shade of a large 
oak tree, said to be in the very centre of Eng- 
land. From here we made an excursion to 
Stratford, which town has, if possible, an older 
look than Chester. We asked a little girl to 
direct us to the church where Shakespeare was 
buried. She looked somewhat frightened, and 
answered, ' He is not buried ; he keeps store 
down that way.' It was evident the little tot 
was not Stratford-born. We sauntered along, 
and soon met a gentleman who gave us the 
desired information. Walkinof throuoh a beau- 
tiful avenue of lime trees, we soon reached the 



20 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

church. In the chancel is the tomb of Shake- 
speare. A bust of the great poet is on the 
wall, and there is a flagstone bearing the 
inscription familiar to all : — 

' Grood friend, for Jesvs sake forbeare 
To digg the dvst encloased heare : 
Bleste be ye man that spares thes stones. 
And curst be he that moves my bones.' 

The church is very old, — a cruciform, with 
central tower and spire ; and some portions of 
the old carvings attracted our attention. I 
was much disappointed with the expression of 
the face of the bust : it looked as if the great 
man felt nauseated, and the atmosphere of 
the church made me feel intensely so, so close 
and musty was it ; so out into the air we gladly 
went. We strolled about in the churchyard 
for a while, looking at the old stones and read- 
ing the queer epitaphs. On one were these 
words, after the name of a wife, her age, and 
time of decease : ' The Lord has done great 
things for us, whereof we are exceeding glad.' 
I doubt that widowed husband being able to 
win wife number two. The house where the 
poet was born is a little old structure of wood 



LETTER II. 21 

and plaster, but well preserved. The walls of 
several of the rooms are entirely covered with 
names written by the sight-seers who have 
visited them. How strange but how true it is, 
that real genius nearly always springs from 
homes of poverty ! Everything in the town 
has a Shakespearian flavor. The fine fountain 
presented by our own countryman, George W. 
Childs, is a beautiful offering. The Shake- 
speare Memorial Buildings, in the form of a 
theatre, are very elegant, and contain some fine 
pictures. F. left me to enjoy the interior of 
this new edifice, saying to ^ look for her on the 
banks of the Avon,' and when I did so, found 
her sleeping in a boat, on the immortalized 
waters, with the willow trees on the banks 
throwing their shadows over her. One can 
scarcely help feeling tinges of romance and sen- 
timent here, this river has been so sweetly sung 
of ; and yet it is a very unpretentious, quiet, 
narrow stream ; but memories of the Bard of 
Avon linger in every spot. 

We were shown, at the Red Horse Hotel, the 
rooms which were occupied by our own Wash- 
ington Irving during his visit here, and in the 



22 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

parlor was the 'Sexton's Clock' which he 
refers to in the ' Sketch Book.' We have 
seen the oddest names in England, for inns 
and boarding-houses, imaginable, such as the 
Pied Bull, The Elephant and the Castle, The 
Turtle and the Lamb, The Pig and the Whistle, 
The Hole in the Wall, and The Struggling 
Man. Now the English are not wise in the 
selection of such names. For my part, I 
should look farther for a stopping place. I 
would not care to try to rest in The Hole in 
the Wall, or to be protected by The Struggling 
Man. 

We visited New Place, Shakespeare's home, 
and the Guild Chapel close by, and ended the 
day by taking a short drive through some of 
the quaint streets and the green lanes of this 
reposeful, historical, and beautifully situated 
Stratford, whose whole atmosphere seems to be 
that conducive to pure, high thoughts, spiritual 
exaltation, rest, and peace. We returned to 
Leamington in time for a pleasant evening 
drive, after a fair dinner. 

June \^tli. — We slept well, and took an early 
breakfast, then started for Kenilworth Castle. 



LETTER II. 23 

It was a glorious morning. Where are the 
clouds and fogs of England ? We have yet seen 
none, and the road we were driven over was 
beautiful. The pastoral scenes, made up of 
pretty homes, cultivated fields, and flowers and 
ivy everywhere before and around us, made us 
eagerly drink all in as a sweet nectar. And, 
more than all, the entire way was clothed with 
historic interest. We could easily imagine 
Queen Elizabeth and her lords and ladies 
dashing along over this very ground in regal 
splendor. The castle is a ruin, but a grand 
one. It stands on a high hill surrounded by a 
wall and moat, the former now down in many 
places and the moat dry. The walls of the 
castle, sixteen feet through, are now covered 
with a luxuriant growth of ivy, so thick that 
the length of my long-handled parasol was 
lost in the mass of dark-g-reen leaves. When 
I look at this ivy and think of my little one at 
home, that I have carefully tended for years, 
and yet it is no thicker now than a jellyfish, I 
do not think much of English ivy torn from 
its mother soil. The numerous turrets and 
towers are also covered with the same vine, and 



24 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

are homes for hundreds of ravens. It is 
owing to the works of Scott that this old 
castle is of such famous interest. As we 
wandered from cells to banquet halls, we re- 
called the revellings and grandeur in the latter, 
and the groans in the former that could not 
reach the ear of mortals. In the ball-room we 
thought of the Earl of Leicester, who ordered 
all clocks stopped that Elizabeth should take 
no note of time. And at the entrance of the 
deep, dark dungeon we sighed for the suffering 
Amy. But, had we stayed in the ruins much 
longer, ruined financially should I have been, 
for the several ' gentlemen,' who seemed to be 
looking at the same objects and with the same 
interest as myself, and of whom I asked ques- 
tions, proved to be guides or informers, and 
expected their shillings. ^ How could I have 
known it ? ' I exclaimed as F. advised me not 
to talk so much. Well, I fear it is true that 
in this country, if we ask a question, we must 
generally pay for the answer. ' Pity 'tis 'tis 
true.' 

Adieu to Kenilworth, and on to Warwick, 
which is of itself a village of considerable size. 



LETTER II. 



25 



Warwick Castle is the finest baronial residence 
in all England. The approach to it is charm- 
ing. We passed under the arched and massive 
gateways into a winding avenue cut out of 
solid, unbroken rock, and on which the castle 
itself is built; each side the rocks tower far 
above our heads and are covered with ivy and 
other vines, and oh so cool and beautiful it 
looks ; so refreshing to us. All at once, and at 
an unexpected turn, the magnificent castle is in 
sight. The lawn in front of it, with its rare 
plants and parterres of gorgeous blossoms, the 
sparkling fountains, and the many peacocks 
strutting about on the velvet sward, with their 
gay plumage spread to its utmost extent, as if 
for our especial admiration, almost dazzled us. 
We paused to take in the scene before us, 
exhausting our vocabulary of adjectives in 
expressions of delight. Every feature of the 
aspect was bright, winning, and delightful. 
Some aristocratic terriers were grouped under 
the shade of a white lilac, as if holding coun- 
cil. Dignified swans were lazily swimming in 
the lake, and the red and gold uniformed 
Guards seemed perfectly satisfied to spend the 



26 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

rest of their lives in slowly pacing up and 
down the gravelled walks. The castle is in 
complete preservation, and its long list of halls, 
libraries, and drawing-rooms are filled with 
rare objects of beauty and interest, of great 
value. The guide who showed us through the 
rooms carried himself in a most stately manner : 
his backbone was surely made of iron, and 
ran up to the top of his head to hold on his 
bushy wig, for he could not bend his body or 
turn his neck. Not hearing one of his ex- 
planations in regard to a mosaic table, formerly 
owned by Queen Elizabeth, I asked him what 
he said. This 'Grand Mogul ' slowly whirled his 
entire breadth toward me, and articulated in a 
monotone these words, ' The explanation I 
have once rendered.' I said, ^ I am sorry I did 
not comprehend it, but, as you are here for the 
purpose of explaining, will you please tell me 
tlie story of the table again.' F. was dazed, 
but the man changed his superior attitude, and 
from that on through the entire castle he gave 
me his devoted attention. In one of the halls 
is a wonderful table, entirely formed of precious 
stones, which once belonged to the ill-fated 



LETTER II. 27 

Queen Marie Antoinette. Statues and original 
busts of many old warriors and kings are here. 
There is a red, a gilt, and a cedar drawing- 
room, all filled with really magnificent paint- 
ings. I took great interest in studying the 
portraits of Queen Elizabeth, the Earl of 
Leicester, and others who participated in the 
gay life led near this spot. 

In the grounds are Guy's and Ca3sar's 
Towers, and in one of the greenhouses we saw 
the celebrated Warwick Vase, which was found 
in the bottom of a lake in Rome, as long ago 
as 1770, I think. The Earl and family live 
here a part of the year, but are now in London. 
This estate must bring the Earl quite a revenue, 
as from fifty to one hundred persons visit it 
every day, and each one leaves a shilling or 
more. 

Near the castle gate is the house where 
Walter Savage Landor was born, and this 
whole Warwickshire is rich in the genius it 
hras given to the world. Greenland Drayton 
opened their eyes on its illustrious soil, and 
George Eliot, whose talent has enriched this 
aire, here first saw lio^ht. How can one feel 



28 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

like a common mortal, or lead an everyday 
life in a country like this, so hallowed with 
historic and artistic associations. 

' Step out of the past now into the present,' 
said F., ^ and I will tell you a story of Queen 
Elizabeth and Queen Mary. Did I ever tell it 
to you?' 

^ I do not recollect any such story that you 
ever told. Was it a good one ? ' 

^0 yes!' 

^ Then you never told it.' I did not get the 
story. 

Not far from the castle is a cathedral of con- 
siderable pretensions, after visiting which, we 
were driven back to Leamington, having spent 
a most delightful day. Finding that an ex- 
press train would get us to London to-night, 
we paid our bills, took our bags, bade good-by 
to the pretty Spa and our pleasant landlady, 
and were soon off. 




LETTER III. 

Edwards Hotel, George St., Hanover Sq., 
London, Jime 20. 

Our rooms we had telegraphed for, so upon 
reaching the city we had nothing to do but 
enter a cab and be driven to them. We have 
homehke accommodations, and our meals served 
in our own private parlor. Everything in the 
house is so quiet that I did not know but we 
had made a mistake and got into a retreat for 
the deaf and dumb. F. thinks it fine, but I 
must say that when I am at a hotel I like the 
bustle and excitement of one. 

The ^ office ' is a small room, presided over by 
two pretty young ladies, who I imagine look 
upon us as intruders, but I talk at them so 
much, they are obliged to speak occasionally. 



30 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

although it seems an effort. They drop their 
h's, and I am sometimes puzzled to understand 
the little information they condescend to give 
us. 

' Boots/ too, is equally taciturn so far : I 
think we shall have to be more liberal with 
our English shillings ! 

We hire our rooms here at a fair price, and 
make extra arrangements for our meals. For 
breakfast, F. desired boiled eggs, and I chose 
fried. Upon asking why my bill was more 
than hers, I was told that it was more work to 
fry eggs than to boil them, and that is so. I 
look in vain for ice-water : there is surely none 
around. I ask for some ; and after waiting 
long enough for water to freeze, am served 
with a pitcher of water and a few small bits of 
ice in a glass. The Yankee ice-pitcher, kept 
well filled, is an article unknown here. 

Out into the streets of London ! What a 
crowd, what a bustle ! What fine-looking 
gentlemen, every one with a button-hole bou- 
quet ! The streets crowded with handsome 
turnouts dashing quickly along ; why, we can- 
not cross the streets without assistance. Bos- 



LETTER III. 31 

ton is a quiet village compared to this. Groups 
of ladies, and rosy-cheeked girls laughing and 
chatting, all wearing flowers ; even the horses 
and carriao'es are trimmed with them. Lines 
of hansoms, Avith generally a lady in each. 
Little children, with overpowering big hats 
and bonnets, trotting along with their nurses. 
Showily uniformed Guards as thick as flies at 
a summer hotel, — and this is London to-day. 
Here is St. George's Church, where so many 
of the aristocracy have taken each other for 
better or for worse. And here in Hanover 
square is a fine bronze statue of William Pitt. 
It looks to me like extraordinary good work, 
but F. calls, ' Come, you cannot spend much 
time cogitating over any one man in this big 
place, dead or alive. If you want to solilo- 
quize over statues, come to St. Paul.' And 
to St. Paul's we went. There are but two 
churches in the world larger than this : St 
Peter's at Rome and the Cathedral at Milan. 
As I tried to realize its immense proportions 
before entering, I thought of the Yorkshire- 
man who brought his better half to see the 
sights of London. ^ There, lass,' said he, 



32 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

^ there be Paul's Church. Ecod, he be a soiz- 
able one, he be.' And we agreed with him long 
before we finished seeing the interior and its 
contents. There are many, many monuments, 
and some exceedingly costly and beautiful, but 
it is utterly impossible to comprehend so much 
at once. Some of the sculptures of the church, 
telling the touching story of the incarnation 
and life of our Saviour, were sadly beautiful, 
especially the figure of Mary with the child in 
her arms, and the ideal figure of the ^ Eisen 
Christ.' The ornamentations of the church 
are greatly in gilt and marble, but the most 
of the latter material looked as if it needed 
^ scrubbing.' The huge organ, which seemed 
to be built on both sides of the choir, was 
being tested by some noted organist ; so we 
had the pleasure of hearing its rich, full, 
exquisitely musical tones. 

Next we visited the Royal Exchange and 
the Bank of England ; then made our way to 
the ^ Tower,' where kings and queens once 
lived, and where many lost their heads. Just 
after entering the gates, a Guard approached 
us, and without any apology or hesitation said. 



LETTER III. 33 

' Will you tell me the name of the man who 
ran with Cleveland for president.' As soon as 
we could recover ourselves, we gladly gave him 
the desired information, without expecting the 
usual shilling we pay for asking a question 
here. But we were astonished that he should 
have so quickly recognized us as Americans, 
without hearino; our voices. He returned to 
his comrade, and they evidently resumed their 
interrupted conversation. 

The ' Tower of London ' is now something 
of a historic museum. The room containing 
the real Crown jewels v/as of much interest to 
me. Queen Victoria's crown is there, which 
she wore at her coronation and has worn sev- 
eral times since, on state occasions. It is a 
large, high crown, principally of gold, with a 
narrow strip of ermine about the lower edge. 
The upper portion is completely studded with 
precious stones, a blazing mass of diamonds, 
emeralds, and rubies. Many other crowns and 
ornaments are here, all containing jewels 
beyond value. They were indeed a sight to 
behold, and really a delight to the eye. But 
before entering the ground, in the street 



34 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

beyond, a weary, sunken-eyed woman, with an 
emaciated child in her arms, asked me for 
enough money to buy some bread. As I 
looked upon that scene and upon this, I felt 
the meaning of the words which my maid at 
home uses when matters do not suit her, 
* There is a screw loose somewhere.' Or per- 
haps over here the screw is too tight. We 
went into the different rooms and towers where 
so many royal prisoners suffered. In the 
Beauchamp Tower we found, amongst the 
many inscriptions on the wall, the word ' Jane,' 
supposed to have been placed there by the 
gentle, ill-starred Lady Jane Grey. We saw 
dungeons, the bloody tower, the green where 
Anne Boleyn and many others were executed ; 
and all these places were so steeped with mon- 
strous, cruel deeds that it was a relief to turn 
away from them and shake off the terrible 
memories. 

We somehow felt heavy-hearted, and F. 
decided it would be a good thing to see a dif- 
ferent extreme, and take a look at ^ wax fig- 
gers.' The underground railway, our first ride 
of the kind, soon carried us to Madame Tus- 
saud's museum. 



LETTER III. 



35 



These railways are, after all, not so very dif- 
ferent from railways above ground. There are 
so many stations where the daylight streams 
in, that one does not have time to realize 
entire darkness. And what tremendous space, 
thoroughly availed of, these stations give for 
advertisers. I feel very familiar already with 
most of the stores, from these advertising bills 
that stare us so conspicuously in the face. 

Madame Tussaud was really an artist, and 
modelled greatly in clay and wax. For a long 
time she lived at the Tuileries and at Ver- 
sailles, as companion for noted porsonages of 
the Court. She was highly educated, and pos- 
sessed large means, but the Revolution com- 
pelled her to leave France. Having lost her 
property, she began to exhibit her * figures,' 
and from that beginning has grown this 
large collection. A figure of Voltaire, made 
by her from life, is simply wonderful. The 
entire collection is much superior to the col- 
lection in the Eden Musee, New York, and 
although some subjects are made to appear 
somewhat ridiculous, the most are life-like and 
excellent. The murdered queens distressed 



36 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

US ; the wax ones have cheered us : and now 
for a ride in the open air ! 

We took outside seats on a tram, and rode 
to the National Museum. I delight in these 
top seats ; we get such unobstructed views of 
everything about us. 

We remained in the museum until the hour 
for closing, but only saw a vast, immense 
accumulation of everything heard, unheard of, 
or dreamed of. 

How singular many of the expressions 
we hear, sound to us. Lemonade is called 
lemon-squash ; the price of an article is the 
tariff ; ticket-offices are booking-rooms ; and 
baggage, luggage always. The money gave 
me some annoyance at first, but I now gener- 
ally know what is the correct change to give 
or to receive, but have one coin on hand 
which puzzles me : all that I can see on it is — 
^ Thanks be to God and to Victoria.' I can- 
not quite decide the value of it. 

June 21s^. — Early this morning we saun- 
tered toward St James's Park, noting the fine 
residences, — Marlborough House, the home of 
the Prince of Wales and family, included. It 



LETTER III. 37 

is a plain, large building, dreary looking ; and 
our free to go and come American girl says, 
' I am thankful I am not a princess. What 
a stupid time those girls, Louise, Maud, and 
Victoria must have, shut up behind those walls 
without ever being able to take a walk with 
" Tom, Dick, and Harry " unattended.' 

An English lady told us, at our hotel, that 
there is a rumor that the Princess Louise is 
very much in love with an English Earl much 
older than herself. These girls are said to be 
all very plain looking, inheriting none of the 
graces of their beautiful mother, who seems to 
be greatly beloved by all the English people, 
and whose unfortunate deafness excites heart- 
felt compassion and sympathy. 

The houses in London, even homes of the 
greatest simplicity, are named, and the names 
are generally placed where they can be plainly 
seen and read. The names of the residences 
of the nobility, as well as many names of the 
streets, often give us a clue to their founders, 
and are therefore appropriate and helpful. 

The Prince and Princess of Wales are now 
in Germany, on account of the death of the 



38 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

Emperor Frederick, the husband of the oldest 
sister of the Prince. The entire royal family 
are of course in deep mourning. In fact, two 
thirds of all the people here are now dressed in 
black. Our little chambermaid, at our hotel, 
did not appear this morning as early as usual 
to give us her service, and when she made her 
appearance I asked her if she was ill. She 
replied : '^ Not at all, but we have been ordered 
into Court mourning, and I sat up late to get 
my black dress made, so felt very weary, and 
slept late.' 

We soon found ourselves near the military 
quarters, where we stopped to see the Grena- 
diers, the Queen's Guard, parade and drillj and 
to listen to the fine music of the band. 

Buckingham Palace is quite near enough 
to Marlborough House for Alexandra to run 
over to her mother-in-law, Mrs Guelph, to bor- 
row her spoons, in case her own number should 
be insufficient for any little tea party, or for 
the good grandmother to be called if the chil- 
dren should unexpectedly ' come down ' with 
the chicken-pox or the measles ; it looks as if 
it might be a real social neighborhood. The 



LETTER III. 39 

exterior of the palace is of light-colored stone, 
but not nearly as fine a building as we had 
expected to see, as the principal residence of 
the Queen. The family had left for Windsor 
the day before. We were shown the royal 
stables and saw the state coach. These royal 
residences do not impress us as being in the 
least remarkable. They are immense in size, 
but possess no merits in the way of architect- 
ure. 

This part of London is very beautiful, 
with its handsome streets and soft green-turfed 
parks. 

We continued our walk to Westminster 
Abbey, and entered. If palaces have not 
come up to my expectations, this far exceeds 
them. The church is huge, built in the form 
of a Latin cross, a great pile of grandeur. 
The interior is indeed most beautiful, and one 
might spend weeks within, and yet feel that 
the half had not been seen. Such a succes- 
sion of wonderfully beautiful monuments and 
memorials to the distinguished, illustrious, and 
talented dead. As works of art, this exquisite 
sculpture delighted my eye more than anything 



40 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

I had ever seen. Kings and queens lie here, 
statesmen and historians, generals and philoso- 
phers, inventors and poets, and the remains of 
many that were great on earth, and the beau- 
tiful marble covers them ! But oh, I know I 
would rather lie like the poorest peasant under 
the greensward, where the sun could shine on 
my resting-place. The reclining statue of the 
wife of Dean Stanley is lovely beyond descrip- 
tion. The angelic expression of the beautiful 
sweet face seems to tell us that she has found 
rest in her ' Father's mansion ' and is satisfied. 
How short a time ago does it seem that I 
heard the Dean in our own Trinity. His body 
now rests here. The words inscribed on the 
monument in memory of Franklin, the Arctic 
explorer, were sadly touching : so simple, and 
yet so full of meaning : — 

ye Frost and Snow !' 
ye Ice and Cold ! 

In the Poet's Corner lies the mouldering 
dust of Thackeray, Southey, Milton, Chaucer, 
Dickens, and many, many others, whose works 
will live forever, and whose words and char- 
acters will carry companionship and comfort 



LETTER III. 41 

into many a household, as do the lines of 
our own Longfellow, of whom his English 
admirers have here placed a beautiful bust. 
It is of pure white marble, and the likeness 
excellent. It stands between the monuments 
of Cowley and Dry den. Some one had placed 
a fresh red rose in the folds of the drapery, 
probably some American, sight-seeing like our- 
selves, and it all brought our home so near to 
me that tears came unbidden 

' Then the forms of the departed 
Enter at the open door : 
The beloved, the true-hearted, 
Come to visit me once more.' 

And now, even in this temple of the dead, 
how sure we feel ^ There is no death ; what 
seems so is transition.' A magnificent monu- 
mental chapel, with costly statues and sculp- 
tures, surmounts the tomb of one of the 
Henrys. Many other chapels, in memory of 
saints, are also here, with aisles and transepts 
filled with monuments. The beautiful rose 
window and the marigold window are worth 
crossing the ocean to see. But of the number- 
less wonderful things here I must not now tell 



42 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

you much more, only will tell you that the Cor- 
onation Chair we have touched, in which have 
been crowned all the Eno^lish sovereig-ns from 
Edward the Confessor to Queen Victoria. I 
reluctantly left this sacred building impressed 
deeply with its wonders. 

We next went to a gorgeous restaurant to 
dine, fully coming to the realization that we 
are still in the flesh. These London restaur- 
ants are a surprise to us, in the quantity of 
excellent food they give, well cooked and 
served, for very little money. I never before 
knew the real meaning of a good mutton chop, 
for we get none in America like these over 
here. The whitebait, here considered so 
great a delicacy, I do not ^ hanker ' for — 
should rather have a ^ Taunton herring.' 

After dining, we visited a collection of paint- 
ings, an annual exhibition by English artists. 
After looking about there, we went to the 
exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, 
which gave us great pleasure. The Royal 
Academy is a private society, and- from its 
fund supports a fine-art school ; and the judges 
of paintings connected with the Academy are 



LETTER III. 43 

considered so perfect in their estimates, that it 
increases the money value greatly of a picture 
if accepted by them and hung at their exhibi- 
tions. We were told that on an average 
ten thousand pictures are sent them for every 
annual exhibit, but rarely over two thousand 
are accepted. This, of course, causes some 
hard feeling amongst the artists. A portrait 
of Sir William Jenner, physician to the Queen, 
by Frank Holl, R. A., was most life-like. 
Many portraits by Herkomer were also excel- 
lent, particularly one of his aged father and 
his own young sons. One painting, named ^ A 
Hopeless Dawn,' by Bramley. attracted me 
greatly. It portrayed the full meaning of the 
quotation from Ruskin : ' Human effort and 
sorrow going on perpetually from age to age ; 
waves rolling forever, and winds moaning, and 
faithful hearts wasting and sickening forever, 
and brave lives dashed away about the rattling 
beaoh like weeds forever ; and still, at the 
helm of every lonely boat, through starless night 
and hopeless dawn. His hand who spreads the 
fisher's net over the dust of the Sidonian pal- 
aces, and gave into the fisher's hand the keys 



44 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

of the kingdom of heaven.' Besides the oils 
and water-colors, the collection of miniatures, 
etchings, drawings, engravings, and sculpture, 
all exceptionally fine, gave us a rare pleasure. 
We here met the first large assemblage of 
Londonites that we have seen. The elite of 
society were present, and many noted persons 
pointed out to us. The ladies do not dress as 
well as our own Americans, but I must give 
precedence to the English gentlemen for both 
good looks and style, courtly manners and 
taste in costumes. 

Having occasion to be near the Houses of 
Parliament, we thought we would utilize time 
by going in then and there. But how to get 
in ? We had not taken time, as yet, to call 
upon Mr. Phelps for letters, as we had meant 
to do later, having a letter of introduction to 
our Minister from a personal friend of his and 
our own. '^ But time in London is precious,' 
said F., ' so let us try.' Parliament was in 
session, and being earnestly anxious to see its 
workings, we screwed our courage to its utmost 
tension and proceeded. After battling with a 
half-dozen Guards and coaxingf another half- 



LETTER III. 45 

dozen, we found ourselves inside the Lobby. 
An immense concourse of ladies and gfentle- 
men were in the corridors, waiting their turn 
to be admitted, and our chances without a 
pass began to look rather doubtful. How- 
ever, with true Yankee pluck I looked over 
the faces of the of&cials, and finally settled 
upon an amiable-appearing one, belonging to 
a ^ Sergeant-at-arms ' and approached him — 
told him our situation, and appealed to him 
for aid. He was every inch a gentleman, and 
evidently anxious to assist us. Told us the 
only possible way to get in was to send our 
card to a member. Yes, but we only knew 
names of members, unfortunately ; not one 
personally. Lowering his voice he said, ' I 
have a brother inside, an official : give me 
your cards ; I will send them to my brother 
to give to Hon. . He is the cham- 
pion and the favorite of all ladies, and never 
refuses, at any sacrifice, to do them a favor.' 
We wrote ^Boston, U. S. A.,' in the corner 
of our pasteboards (which is, we find, a good 
place to hail from), and they went from us 
to seek their fortune and ours. Word soon 



46 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

came back, brought by a handsome page, 

that Mr. was then delivering a speech, 

but would see us soon. We waited some time, 
with much about us to take our attention, 
when a Guard called in stentorian tones, ^The 

* Hon. Mr, .' We arose as we were told to do 

by our new-found ally, and saw approaching us 
a small, pleasant-faced gentleman, who imme- 
diately extended his hand with words of wel- 
come, as if we were expected guests. To the 
kind-hearted, gallant, and courteous Irish M. 
P. shall we ever be grateful ! A way was 
made for us into the gallery of the chamber of 
peers, from which we had a good view of the 
brilliant show below. Many ladies were pres- 
ent on the benches, mostly peeresses or rela- 
tives of nobility. Later, our kind escort sent 
for us to take seats in the ladies' gallery of 
the House of Commons, which, not without 
difficulty, he had secured. We realize the 
great honor of being here, and yet it is a good 
deal like sitting up in an organ loft, or being 
placed, front side out, in a bread toaster, for 
we are separated from the M. P.'s by metal 
spokes. The reporters have a place under us, 



LETTER III. 47 

and the members occupy the other galleries 
and the three or four hundred seats about the 
tables. A member was speaking, but his 
enunciation was so poor that I failed to 
understand him ; so spent the time in looking 
about. Gladstone was present, but did not 
speak ; I had a very good view of him. He 
does not look at all '^ John Bullish,' in the old 
sense of the expression, but is a refined, mod- 
est-looking gentleman, with rather a tired-out 
air about him. A number with wigs an^ 
gowns, some stiff-appearing functionaries 
wearing garbs that looked as if they were 
prepared for the stage, many pages rushing 
hither and thither, the buzz of voices, and the 
hand-clapping, all made a bewildering scene. 
It seemed very much out of keeping with the 
usually ceremonious proceedings of the Com- 
mons, to see the members costumed in perfect 
evening dress, wearing their hats. 

In the House of Lords the throne is the 
chief object of interest, and the peers, upon 
entering, always salute it, I presume as some- 
thing of a compliment to royalty. It contains 
three seats : the middle one is the Queen's, 



48 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

the right-hand one that of the Prince of 
Wales, and the one on the left has not 
been allowed to be occupied since the death of 
Prince Albert. When the Lord Chancellor 
takes his seat in this room, he wears a red 
gown, an ermine mantle, a big wig, and a 
three-cornered hat. We thanked our new- 
made friend for his unusual kindness, for he 
really seemed determined to make us feel that 
showing us about was the greatest pleasure 
of his lifetime, and w^e left the Houses at ten 
p. M., with the workings going on as lively as 
if just commenced. 

I think the manners of a Massachusetts 
legislative body superior in dignity to those 
of the members of the House of Commons. 
But who under the gilded dome on Beacon 
Hill would give himself as much trouble to 
entertain a strange English lady, as our mem- 
ber took upon himself to entertain us ! Do 
not all speak at once, gentlemen. 

Friday, June '22nd. — The clerk of the 
weather will come in rightfully for his share 
of praise, for another bright morning greets 
us. We took an early start for the National 



LETTER III. 



49 



Gallery. Turner has here the most of his 
works. Some of his paintings, although not 
considered as masterly as his Slave Ship, please 
me better, but it seems to me he delights 
in capricious methods in the use of his brush. 
It is a treat to our eyes to see the originals of 
Landseer, Rosa Bonheur, and other works of 
artists which have become familiar to us from 
engravings. One of Raphael's Madonnas is 
here, and long held our attention. London 
is full of artists, and in the galleries we see 
hundreds of students copying, and some excel- 
lent work they do. Here lives Herkomer, 
who was with us at one time, also Millais, Sir 
Frederick Leighton, Alma Tadema, and others 
whose talent has brought them large for- 
tunes. The chimes ring out our hour for leav- 
ing, although our time here has not been half 
long enough. I love these chime bells ! And 
nearly all of the churches have them, and 
sweetly do they sound their pretty airs. 

A drive of about four miles brought us to the 
exhibition of the Royal Military Tournament. 
The pavilion contained an aristocratic audience, 
and the good horsemanship of the soldiers, on 



50 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

their handsome and well-trained animals, was 
a novel sight. A lady sat next me with her 
two little girls and their maid. The children 
had material enough in their bonnets to have 
covered them all over comfortably, but their 
legs were bare to the knees and looked cold, 
for the wind had changed, and a damp draught 
chilled us. I offered part of my lap-wrap to 
the little ones, and the mother kindly thanked 
me, but added, ^ They do not need it if only 
their heads are warm ; they cannot take cold ; 
one never takes cold in the legs, you know.' 
And undoubtedly English mothers all agree 
with her, for the children's limbs are univer- 
sally unprotected from the weather. They 
wear heavy shoes but short stockings. I have 
already come to the opinion that it is not of 
much use to differ with the English. If we do, 
differently from them, they feel a little sorry 
for us that we do not know the better way, 
which is always their way. 

This evening we went to the Covent Garden 
Theatre to hear Minnie Hauk, in ' Carmen.' 
Not wishing to take time to get into full dress, 
we changed our hats, substituting pretty, 



LETTER III. 51 

light-colored evening ones, and added fresh, 
sweet roses to our costumes, and started, 
and thought oiir appearance would do our- 
selves and all else credit. But to our dis- 
comfort, opinions differed, and we could not be 
admitted to our box without leaving our pretty 
head-gear outside, where they had no chance 
of being seen and admired. After getting 
comfortably seated, we looked about us. The 
ladies were dressed as if for a grand ball, silks, 
satins, velvets, and tulles, of every color, com- 
posed the gowns, invariably made decollete — 
' much, more, and most ' decollete. Gentlemen 
were, of course, all in dress suits, and every one 
wearing and carrying flowers. It was indeed a 
brilliant scene, but I like the more modest cos- 
tuming of our own countrywomen, in public 
places, better. Displays like this, it seems to 
me, should be made only, if at all, at private 
gatherings. The setting of the opera and the 
music were superb. Hauk's voice has improved 
wonderfully since heard in America some years 
ago. She is a great favorite here, and many 
of the aristocracy were of the audience, and a 
loudly enthusiastic one it was. All the prin- 



52 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

cipal artists were deluged with flowers, and 
Hauk received a laurel wreath of solid gold 
leaves at the close of the last act. Prices to 
first-class entertainments here are higher than 
in America, and programmes have to be paid 
for always. They employ young women as 
ushers. Between acts, ices and cool drinks are 
brought to the audience, but a round price is 
asked for them. We lingered to see the 
people more distinctly as they left their seats. 
The ladies lack the grace and beauty of 
Americans, but look bright, rosy-cheeked, and 
healthful, bat the gentlemen are certainly 
superior in looks, carriage, and physique. Our 
little newsy chambermaid tells us the London 
gentlemen all wear ' stays.' I wonder if they 
do! 

Saturdai/, June 23d. — What an immense 
city London is, to be sure ! Twenty miles 
long or more, and just as bustling at one end 
as the other. There is such a mass of every- 
thing that it is almost overpowering. To-day 
we have been driven through some of the best 
and some of the worst streets iu the city. We 
saw ' The Old Curiosity Shop,' and many other 



LETTER III. 53 

spots immortalized by Dickens. We have 
looked into some of the old churches and some 
of the new ones. Have been into the best 
stores, and there are many fine ones. We find 
furs and silks cheaper, and cottons dearer than 
at home. We could not find a pair of French 
kid boots of a good shape in all London, and 
rubber overshoes are not kept at all. We 
walked across London Bridge to take a look 
at the river, crowded with barges, boats, ships, 
and water-craft of every make and shape. We 
took luncheon at the Holborn Restaurant, and 
thought we had stepped into a palace, so 
sumptuous were the surroundings. It was 
very pleasing to take our bouillon on a mosaic 
table, surrounded with Carrara marble statuary, 
and Hstening to the strains of lulling, restful 
music. 

After replenishing the * inner man,' we 
boarded a little steamer for a sail up the 
Thames. The banks of the river are full of in- 
terest. The water of the lower part is thick and 
muddy, and I should think that even a desperate, 
w^ould-be suicide would turn from it disgusted. 
As we go up farther, where the shipping is less, 



54 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

it becomes clearer. Excursion steamers, barges, 
and yachts, freighted with humanity, are busily 
plying up and down, and the bridges open 
gracefully to let us pass. The river itself, 
with the Victoria Embankment on the one 
side and the Albert Embankment on the 
other, the fine buildings, the parks, and the 
noble trees, all seen through the rich atmos- 
phere of this perfect June day, make a pic- 
turesque and enjoyable impression, not soon to 
be forgotten. 

We landed, on our return, where we could 
take a carriage for Hyde Park. As we are in 
London ^ in the season,' in the Park, about five 
p. M., we see all the * swelldom ' driving and 
riding, for it is here they take their airing. 
The Park itself is lovely, with large, perfect 
roads and walks, grand, magnificent old trees, 
plump, clean sheep and graceful deer grazing 
contentedly, as well they may in such quarters. 
The kaleidoscope views of the interminable 
throng in the ' Drive ' and the ' Row,' the 
fine horses, the gorgeous equipages, the showy 
liveries, and the gay toilettes, are bewildering. 
Here surely is abundance of style. Here are 



LETTER III. 55 

hundreds of elegant turnouts, many with armo- 
rial bearings, fours-in-hand, sixes-in-hand, dog- 
carts, T-carts, tandems, and phaetons ; footmen 
and coachmen in livery of red and white, and 
red and gilt, some with wigs and some without. 
Here comes a pony carriage with a load of 
laughing children, there an antiquated yellow- 
bodied ducal coach, with postilions well 
powdered and the dowagers inside looking 
powdered also ; a low buggy with a light- 
blue body, and a blue-ribboned girl with ' her 
young man ' beside her looking into her blue 
eyes ; a black carriage hung high, footmen 
and coachmen in black, and the ladies within 
draped in crape. And this is Hyde Park ! 
Solemnity and gayety ! Prince and commoner 
meet, and all are lookers on. The boats on 
the Serpentine, and that wonderful pile of 
marble and bronze, the Albert Memorial, next , 
attracted us. The marble groups representing 
the four great nations, and the bas-reliefs of 
great artists and poets, are fine. Although 
London is so immense and so crowded, its peo- 
ple have plenty of beautiful breathing spots, 
more beautiful than the people of anv other 



56 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

city, unless the Parisians. To our hotel to 
dress and out to dinner, our first dinner here 
with friends. 

Our visit in a London home, last evening, 
was delightful, we were so cordially welcomed 
and so hospitably entertained. The house, 
in one of the best streets of the city, was a 
large, square one with hall in the centre. The 
rooms were spacious, with dark finishings 
and furnishings, therefore not wearing the 
cheery look of our own homes. The massive- 
ness of the elaborately carved furniture 
seemed to overshadow heavily the very few 
ornamental articles displayed. There were no 
paintings on the walls, but a small gallery in 
the rear of the house contained a good collec- 
tion. The effect of the living rooms without 
the bright, living faces would have been some- 
what sombre. I think a happy medium would 
be desirable, a little more bric-a-brac in Euro- 
pean homes and a little less in our own, in 
which I have often had to navigate carefully 
to avoid running against ornamental articles. 
The English people are at their best under 
their own ' fig-tree.' They build homes for a 



LETTER III. 57 

lifetime, and for their children and grandchil- 
dren after them. They make but few changes 
in them, and the women particularly stay, or 
' stop ' as they would say, the greater portion 
of their lives in their homes, for as a people 
they travel but little. They are very hos- 
pitable after once having been introduced, and 
entirely at ease in entertaining, as an English 
household is rarely without its guests. Our 
host, an M. P., has a house in the country, 
and they only spend the ' season ' in town. 
The English greatly love the country and out- 
of-door life and sports. Several friends of our 
entertainers had been invited to meet us, and 
we found them all very gracious and charming. 
I think the English are a good deal like a 
Devonshire pie, — wearing a thick crust, but 
when once the crust is broken the ' goodies ' are 
unusually delicious. Our menu at dinner con- 
sisted of soup, iish, entree, roast-beef, chicken, 
and desert, with wines and coffee. No carving 
was done at the table. The vegetables were 
brought in served in individual dishes. By 
the way, no vegetables are palatably prepared 
in England, for they are never seasoned. The 



58 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

English keep many servants, and at this din- 
ner there seemed to be a servant for every 
guest. The English are great eaters, but they 
take plenty of time to do it in. The general 
appearance of the setting of the table was not 
different from our own home tables ; perhaps 
more flowers, and more beautiful ones. I 
mention these details to show you that din- 
ners informal here do not vary much from the 
same in America. Our pleasant evening with 
Mr. M. and his lovely family will long be 
remembered. 

Sunday, June 24:th. — No London fog yet ! 
We have had but one unpleasant day since we 
have been here. To-day is simply perfect. 
There is a ' shimmer ' about these lovely June 
mornings that can be felt but not described. 
Out with the crowd of churchgoers go we, 
and, to the credit of the English people be it 
said, they all go to church. We first went to 
old St. Giles'. Here we saw the tomb of Mil- 
ton. What a safe, homelike feeling it brings 
us to hear in far-away lands our precious 
church service. Somehow it gives us a sense 
of security, of encouragement, such as a child 



LETTER III. 59 

in the dark feels, when he hears his mother's 
voice. 

From St. Giles' we wandered into a church 
near by, where a young man was preaching to 
a large congregation. From his fine presence 
and good voice, we hoped to hear also a good 
sermon — but were disappointed. He seemed 
to suppose the Creator knew but little, and 
that it was his duty to inform Him: he told 
Him of the needs of London, and especially of 
the wants of his churchpeople. The only 
good part of the service was the music. 

Later, we seated ourselves on a Thames 
steamer, which had evidently put on its Sun- 
day dress, and sailed up to Kew. I can give 
to you no description of these beautiful gar- 
dens. They contain, I believe, the largest con- 
servatories in the world. The ferns and the 
palms were forests of cool, green loveliness. 
The Victoria Regia lily is here, in unsurpassed 
beauty. We wandered oif into a shady, retired 
nook, and seated ourselves on the grass, a lovely 
sheet of water in front of us, birds trilling 
their vespers about us, and the myriads of blos- 
soms wafting to us their fragrant incense. It 



60 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

was all to us a sermon that was gf-ood for us. 
'• For tliou, Lordj hast made me glad through 
thy works ; and I will rejoice in giving praise 
for the operations of thy hands.' 

Next, we went by carriage to Richmond, a 
place of great historic interest and attractions. 
The drive was beautiful. The distant views 
were lovely. We passed many stately resi- 
dences, surrounded by well-kept grounds, ivy 
and flowers in abundance. But the English 
will build high walls about their country 
homes, thus shutting themselves, oyster-like, 
from the passers-by. These unsightly walls 
spoil what would without them delight the 
eye. We stopped on Richmond Hill to see 
the beautiful views from that elevation, and 
were well repaid. The river going on and on, 
the meadows, the hills, the elms and the chest- 
nuts throwing dark shadows, the heaths and 
downs, the farm-houses and the mansions, 
Windsor in the distance, and the peculiar mel- 
lowness of the whole landscape, were worth the 
looking upon. At Hampton Court we took a 
look at the rich tapestries and the paintings, 
including the ' Hampton Court Beauties.' 



LETTER III. 61 

This old court has echoed to the footsteps of 
many kings and many noted in history. Car- 
dinal Wolsey fitted the place up in regal 
style, meaning to give it the honor of his 
own presence, but King Henry looked on 
with jealous, envious eyes, and asked him his 
reasons for having made so costly a palace. 
The wily Cardinal was ingenious in his reply, 
answering — ^ To show how noble a palace a 
subject may offer to his king.' This palace is 
now used as a home by members of the nobil- 
ity whose incomes have been reduced. We 
spent a short time in the park and then started 
toward London, a distance of twelve miles or 
more. We were fortunate in securing front 
seats on a tally-ho coach, drawn by four hand- 
some gray horses. We stocked ourselves well 
with delicious fruit, which the venders pass up 
to us on poles, temptingly arranged in little 
baskets, and on we went over a beautiful road, 
through the glorious Bushey Park, with its 
majestic elms and chestnuts. ' 0, we have no 
such rural beauty as England ! ' said I. ' But 
we shall have when we are as old,' said my 
true American beside me. 



62 



A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 



And that reminds me of what a gentleman 
at Leamington said, in answer to my question, 
' How do you get the beautiful green your 
lawns wear ? ' 

^ We only water the grass/ he replied. 

' But,' said I, '^ we keep our American lawns 
well watered and they do not look like yours.' 
^ You forget, Madame, that we have watered 
ours for centuries,' said he with a smile. 

At last we enter the city, and drive through, 
through, through it, a long, long way. Crowds 
of people in the streets, crowds in the parks, 
crowds everywhere ! Men are preaching on the 
corners, women singing, members of the Sal- 
vation Army exhorting and praying, and at 
last we reach our journey's end safely. It is 
ten p. M., and yet not dark, so long are these 
English twilights ! 

June 25th. — The third one of our trio has 
again joined us, much to our satisfaction, and 
to-day we have been to the Crystal Palace, 
the Zoological Gardens, and have accom- 
plished one hundred and one other things. In 
the palace there is much to be seen — pictures, 
sculpture, and other works of art. To-day an 



LETTER III. 63 

unusual crowd had gathered there to attend the 
concert in the large hall in the afternoon. We 
were fearful we might not be able, owing to the 
jam, to see all we came for, and here we desire 
to thank again the secretary of the associa- 
tion for his kindness toward us. If the Eng- 
lish gentlemen are all like those we have come 
in contact with, I for one shall ever sing their 
praises. Here we heard ^ The Messiah ' by 
the ' Handel and Haydn ' society. Albani 
and Lillian Norton were two of the artistes, 
which quite Americanized the company, and 
all were almost perfect in their parts. In the 
evening elaborate pyrotechnic displays were 
made, which with the colored lights and foun- 
tains, the bands playing, a company of ballet 
dancers performing out-of-doors, and the army 
of gayly dressed people, made it seem like 
veritable fairy-land. It is all alluring, but we 
must turn our backs upon it, as we have an 
invitation to ' The Criterion ' to see Windom 
as David Garrick. The play was well acted, 
and when over, a supper at a fine restaurant 
near, where a choir of boys sang to us beau- 
tiful glees, with their sweet voices, ended 



64 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

another enjoyable day. We have seen much 
in London, and must leave much unseen, nor 
can I here tell you of the half we have seen, 
but have given you some ideas of what I 
thought you would best like to hear about. 

Of our trip to Brighton I believe I have 
not said a word, but will now tell you a little 
about it, as it was different from any other. 
Brighton is the largest and most fashionable 
of all English watering-places, but as it is not 
yet the season there, the place had rather a 
deserted air. It is a city of brick, and the 
houses look as if built to remain forever, as 
does everything else in England. There is an 
esplanade of solid stone, with promenades on 
top ; on the one side of it is the beach and 
sea, and on the other the large hotels and fine 
houses. A part of every day's programme is 
to dress in one's best, and promenade up and 
down the esplanade, but the promenaders all 
looked as solemn as if on their way to a 
funeral. The ladies smiled not, and the men 
looked as if they had iron pokers run up 
and down their backs, arms akimbo, heads 
bent back to assist the glass over one eye to 



LETTER III. 65 

stay in place, — all quite Englisli, ^ you know.' 
On the beach were plenty of * bathing 
machines/ which are really bathhouses on 
wheels, bath-chairs, and children with their 
nurses, and in the surf a few bathers. The 
ladies seemed to have more on than our water- 
nymphs at Narragansett Pier, and the gentle- 
men apparently wore but little clothing ; in 
fact, I was reminded of pictures I used to see 
in my geography, of the costumes worn by 
natives in — well, I think it was Africa; but 
they carried themselves, even in the water, with 
dignity. Our drive back to London on a tally- 
ho was delightful. 

We have been favored here with pleasant 
weather, but I can imagine how grim and 
black certain parts of the city would look, in 
bad. They use much coal here, and, as every- 
where else, it leaves its mark. We have seen 
the best of London, and we have had glimpses 
of her rich citizens and of her poor. There 
are many rich families here, because their 
wealth has been inherited, just as the poor 
have inherited their poverty. Families here 
keep in about the same groove that their ances- 



QQ A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

tors did before them. The Queen is greatly 
beloved, and we all know she is a good woman 
and a gracious sovereign. Of the Prince of 
Yf ales, also, I hear many good things. But 
why should there be such a thing as '^ royalty ? ' 
How much better and higher is the code of 
self-government, than servile obedience to any 
king or queen, human beings like ourselves. 
I could not breathe freely as a citizen of a 
country where son of mine could not take the 
highest place in the nation, if he were worthy 
of it and the people's choice. Thank God 
that ' in the land of the free,' our own America, 
we can be whatever we make ourselves, and 
not what the accident of birth has made us. 
Of 'Merrie England,' however, I shall carry 
away with me grateful remembrances of her 
people, and a score of memories of the beauti- 
ful land itself, which will ever be a source of 
enjoyment to summon. 




LETTER IV. 

June 26, 1888. 
From London to New Haven by rail, and 
there took steamer to cross the English Chan- 
neL It was stormy and very rough, and nearly 
all but our party succumbed to sea-sickness. 
We could not remain outside, the storm was 
60 severe, and the close proximity of the mal- 
de-mer victims proved a little contagious. The 
gong sounded for dinner, but I feared din- 
ner and my stomach would not agree, and 
remembering my determination not to be sick, 
turned my back upon those that were, took a 
bright little story, and soon got so interested 
in it that I entirely got over my nearness to a 
capitulation. But we decided we liked the sea 
better than the choppy Channel. 



68 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

We landed at Dieppe, and stepped upon 
French soil ! We looked about the queer old 
French town with our usual enthusiasm and 
curiosity, and then proceeded to Rouen. Had 
three hours there. We dined in the garden 
of our inn, on a table in an arbor covered 
with yellow roses of a peculiarly sweet fra- 
grance. The people looked at us with as 
much wonderment in their faces as we at them. 
And what a bedlam their clatter makes to be 
sure. Well for us that our escort can under- 
stand every language under the sun — good, 
bad, or indifferent. We took a carriage and 
were driven about the town. We -vvent inside of 
three cathedrals, and we saw the spot where Joan 
of Arc was burned. The streets of the old town 
are very narrow, the houses queer and foreign. 
All of the women and children seemed to be 
sitting out of doors, with knitting work in hand. 
They wear little close caps and wooden shoes, 
and the skin of the women looks like shrivelled 
leather. I am told that the lower class of the 
citizens of Dieppe are very superstitious, that 
they believe, if the souls of those drowned are 
not prayed for by their living relatives, at every 



LETTER IV. 69 

midnight, for one year, a terrible storm will 
arise, and the ghosts of the departed appear 
to them. 

At four p. M. we took train for Paris, run- 
ning through a pretty country, with fields of 
red poppies and large orchards of cherry trees, 
red with ripe fruit. We bought them at every 
station, and most delicious were they. The 
many hamlets or clusters of little thatched cot- 
tages, so very close together, looked at least 
social. 

At eleven p. m. our train rolled into the sta- 
tion in the city of Paris; and such a babel ! Why 
will these people chatter so fast? We had no 
trouble with our trunks, and with them were 
immediately driven to our engaged apartments, 
in Rue Clement Marot, where we are to remain 
during our stay. The name of the street has 
the right sound, at any rate, for Marot was not 
only a poet but a philosopher, and his phil- 
osophy we may need in ^ doing ' Paris. 

Paris, Wednesday, June 21th, 1888. — Our 
hostess and her family have given us a cordial 
welcome, and we already feel quite at home. 
Our apartments are convenient and prettily 



70 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

furnished, and we are to be very happy here, I 
am sure. Our journey of yesterday tempted 

me to sleep late this morning, but F let 

in the bright daylight, with an exclamation of 
disapprobation at time in Paris being spent in 
slumber. So I was soon ready, feeling like ' a 
new top,' for the day's whirl. We have here, 
served early in our rooms, or in the breakfast 
room, as we choose, rolls and coffee. At noon 
we have ' dejeuner a la fourchette ; ' at five, 
tea; and at seven a sumptuous dinner. A 
sweet young lady from Beverly and several New 
Yorkers are of the household, so we make a 
pleasant family party. We are near the 
Champs Elysees, and this part of the city is 
beautiful — broad, fine streets shaded with trees. 
We took an early drive in this vicinity, and 
were later left at the Salon, spending several 
hours there. What a bewildering collection of 
pleasing pictures ! I do love these paintings 
of lovely faces, of home scenes, of restful bits 
of scenery, by these modern artists. We so 
feel them ; we comprehend them ; they gladden 
the heart as well as the eye. The painting 
which won the first prize this year was a bat- 



LETTER IV. 71 

tie-piece by D'Etaille. I recall a picture at the 
Metropolitan Museum, in New York, by this 
same artist. Meissonier had been his teacher, 
and he had also been chosen to award the 
prizes, but when he attempted to address this 
man, his successful pupil, he could not speak, 
and impulsively threw his arms about him and 
burst into tears and kissed him. Surely there 
was no envy there. We have seen many of 
Meissonier's pictures here, and they are all 
wonderful in their exactness to nature. His 
portraits are very life-like, and one almost sees 
the blood go and come under the skin, so nat- 
ural are the flesh-tints. Pictures, like poems, 
must be read to be appreciated. But to me, 
the most that I have seen of Turner's I should 
label ^ Sanscrit,' not being able to read them. 
For instance, the one called ^ Tapping the Fur- 
nace :' I searched in vain in it for any object 
that looked like a furnace, and I thought of 
the story I had heard of the farmer's wife, 
whose city cousin took her to see paintings in 
London. She looked at Turner's ^ The Day 
after the Deluge ' — put on her spectacles, and 
read the title : ' Well ! I should think it wur,' 



72 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

said she and passed on. Great minds possess 
an intuition by which they can see farther into 
things than ordinary minds can, and such 
minds probably understand and admire Turner. 

On the river Seine are hundreds of little 
steamers plying up and down, from which one 
gets good views of the river's banks. From one 
we were much amused to see how the washing 
of Paris is done. The washerwomen bring 
their clothes to the river and wade in quite a 
distance, and rub them in the muddy-looking 
water. We saw old women, pretty girls, and 
children all thus at work. I cannot imagine 
what keeps them from having rheumatism, 
neuralgia, and all the diseases that flesh is heir 
to. How linen can be made to look white 
in such water I do not understand, and yet 
some which we had laundered, and returned 
to us this morning, was immaculate — white 
skirts and furbelows included, all for two francs 
a dozen. 

We stepped from our steamer on shore, near 
Notre Dame, and entered this cathedral, which, 
from pictures and descriptions familiar to us, 
seemed quite like an old acquaintance. The 



LETTER IV. 73 

exterior is a regular cruciform, with an octagon 
end. At the other extreme are two lofty 
square towers, and back of them a spire, sur- 
mounted with a gilt cross. The outside is 
also adorned with some massive statues. The 
multitude of statues, of bas-reliefs, of beau- 
tiful sculpture, in the interior of the building, 
is wonderful in design, richness and beauty. 
The subjects are mostly from church history. 
There are many statues of the Virgin and Child, 
and the expressions of all are angelic and peace- 
ful, and yet each one greatly differs from the 
rest. The face of St. Martin, who is repre- 
sented in the act of sharing his mantle with a 
beggar, to protect him from the cold, is heav- 
enly in its sweetness and beauty, and one turns 
again and again to look at it. Some of the 
subjects, however, are not as pleasing or as 
helpful. The Last Judgment is portrayed in 
three parts : the second scene represents the 
separation of the righteous from the sinners, but 
the faces of the ' elect ' had such a victorious, 
triumphant, ' I told you so ' look, as they gazed 
down upon their condemned brothers and sisters, 
that my sympathies were entirely with the sin- 



74 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

ners, and I thought I should rather have cast 
my lot with them. Amongst the sculptures of 
the Arch is a remarkable one of the Saviour 
trampling the wicked under His feet, and 
motioning; to Satan to dra«: them off to hell. 
This is not our idea of the Saviour, who has 
said, * Come unto me,' and ' There shall be one 
fold and one Shepherd.' The sacristy of the 
cathedral consists of a lofty hall (all of the large 
churches of Europe have sacristies and treas- 
uries, in which are kept the valuables belong- 
ing to the church) and in this one we saw 
wealth untold. Church utensils, mitres, crosses, 
crosiers, swords, and many other articles, 
studded with precious stones, dazzling in their 
splendor. The robes which were worn by Pius 
VII. at the coronation of Napoleon I. were 
exhibited to us : they were very richly embroid- 
ered with silver and gold. A statue, as large 
as life, of the Virgin and Child, made of solid 
silver, is also here. 

We next went to the church of St. Eustache. 
The altar of this church is exceedingly high, 
and composed of pure white marble, exquisitely 
sculptured, and the church also contains fine 



LETTER IV. 75 

frescoes. Took a glance at the church of St. 
Germaine, which was the favorite place of wor- 
ship of the Empress Eugenie. Also took in St. 
Chappelle, where we heard some soul-stirring 
music. All of these cathedrals are rich in 
stained glass, and are of immense proportions 
and varied beautiful architecture. 

Feeling that we could not comprehend the 
wonders of any more churches in one day, we 
changed our train of thoughts to justice, by 
going through the Palais de Justice and into 
several other handsome public buildings. My 
eyes were brightened, also, by a look at the 
glitter of brilliant gems in the shops of the 
Palais Royal, although the other wise minds 
thought time thus spent a waste. ' Stores 
enough in New York and Boston,' they said ; 
but oh, not such stores ! How bright, how 
tempting the contents of those windows were ! 
The shopkeepers of Paris think all Americans 
millionaires, and under some circumstances it 
might be flattering to be thus considered, but 
in shopping in Paris it is unfortunate, as in 
many stores here I am sure they advance the 
price of articles when an American seems to 



76 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

wish to purchase. I very much desired to ob- 
tain an odd Httle pin in one of the shops, but 
found it much dearer than I expected. The 
next day the daughter of my hostess secured 
it for me for about half the amount they valued 
it at when they thought / wished to buy 
it. But this is not the principle of all the 
stores, by any means. 

The cabs of Paris are a great convenience. 
They are cheap to employ, and are handsome 
and most comfortable, much the shape of our 
Victorias. They use good, well-kept looking 
horses, well harnessed, and the cockers are 
attentive and polite. For all of this one has 
only to pay one franc to be carried anywhere 
within the city limits, or two persons can ride 
one hour for two francs. When I think of my 
carriage bills at home, in the party season espe- 
cially, I feel like staying in Paris — and riding 
on forever — it is such a great pleasure for so 
little money. 

During the day, we secured tickets for the 
opera this evening, but there were as many 
forms to go through Avith as Ave have for the 
inauguration of the President of the United 



LETTER IV. 77 

States, and when the desired articles are at 
last transferred to the purchasers ' hands, at the 
rate of five dollars apiece, they are so cumbrous 
that one needs a valet to carry them. Our own 
method of going to the ticket window and 
quickly securing our little pieces of pasteboard, 
for half the money, is much better. After a 
fully appreciated dinner at home we arrayed 
ourselves for the entertainment, knowing better 
than to go in street costume, or with bonnets 
on, this time. Our box was a lower one, in 
the centre of the row, and from which we had 
a fine opportunity of seeing the audience and 
the beautiful interior of this house. It is sim- 
ply magnificent. The decorations are rich, 
hght, and cheerful. The vestibule and stair- 
ways are gorgeous and dazzling. About the 
halls and corridors are placed tables, where 
between acts the ladies and gentlemen sit, and 
sip cool drinks and ices, chatting and laugh- 
ing as if life were all a gala day. All are in 
full dress, and the ladies' gowns are exquisitely 
made and worn ; low corsages, with diamond 
necklaces clasped around the throats of the 
fair wearers, predominate. As these French 



78 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

ladies and their dark-moustaclied escorts prom- 
enade over the white marble stairs to the strains 
of the sweet music, it is a gay and festive 
scene. We watched, with much interest and 
admiration, one very beautiful girl, the very 
loveliest of them all, and how delighted we 
were when we heard her speak, and found 
her to be an American. The opera was 
^ L'Africaine,' and was gorgeously set and 
grandly rendered. It was one a. m. when we 
reached home, but our kind hostess was waiting 
for us, to have the pleasure, as she said, of 
serving us with strawberries and cream. 

By the way, such delicious cherries, straw- 
berries, raspberries, and apricots as we have 
here do not grow in America. The market 
women drag the fresh, luscious fruits in wagons 
through the streets, and for a few sous one 
gets his fill. 

Thursday, June 28, 1888. — Another morn- 
ing spent in the Salon, and I wish we could 
have had time to have given the entire day 
there. We lingered before our favorite pict- 
ures, and at last turned reluctantly away from 
them, as from living friends. Spent the next 



LETTER IV. 79 

hour at the Trocadero and its beautiful gar- 
den. The hall in the * Palace of the Troca- 
dero' will seat 10,000 people. The aquarium 
and museum connected are of much interest. 
Some of the statuary and sculpture are so 
beautiful that it seems impossible that human 
hands could have carved the speaking faces 
from blocks of marble. It is opposite here 
that the Exposition of 1889 is to be held. 
Museums in Paris are as thick as plums in a 
Thanksgiving pudding. Going toward the 
Madeleine, we stopped in the flower-market; 
tables and baskets were piled with flowers, 
— tons of them — cut flowers, and potted 
plants in bloom, and selling for a ^mere 
song ' compared with home prices. We have 
so often looked eagerly in the florists' windows 
on Tremont Street, just wishing and longing 
for even one jacquiminot, but when that took 
a dollar we had often to be satisfied with look- 
ing. ^ And now,' said F., ^ we will have all we 
want ; we will wear them, and smell them, to 
our hearts' content, and is not Paris delight- 
ful, and what a good time we are having ! ' 
Loaded with sweet blossoms, we strayed into 



80 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

the Madeleine, and seated ourselves just as 
a bridal party was entering the other aisle. 
We were uninvited but sympathetic guests. 
The bride looked very young, with a pretty 
face and figure, and a confiding, trustful man- 
ner ; and when the groom, rather a distin- 
guished-looking Frenchman, took her hand, 
and promised to love and cherish always, our 
hearts and lips cried Amen ! We hope this 
little bride chose her own husband, for hus- 
bands, here, we are told, are generally selected 
by the parents of the girls for them, and they 
rarely rebel. Nearly all marriages among the 
wealthy class are ^ mariages de convenance.' 
Indeed, a young girl here has a sorry sort of a 
time of it before she is married ; she cannot be 
alone with gentlemen long enough to know 
whom she would like to choose for a husband, 
and consequently is more willing to accept 
submissively the one chosen for her, for mar- 
riage brings to her more freedom, liberty of 
action, and pleasure. 

Since here, we invited a French lady to go 
to an entertainment with us. She accepted, 
but came to us later to apologize and decline, 



LETTER IV. 81 

as she found herself obliged to chaperone her 
daughter, who was going to a garden party 
with Monsieur M., and of course could not go 
with a man alone. ^ Why, what is the matter 
with her man ? Is he a lunatic ?' said F. ^ I 
went shopping alone yesterday, and asked 
information about the shops and streets of 
several of the genus, and they all seemed sane 
and gentlemanly.' ' Yes, ' was the lady's 
reply, ' they knew you to be an American, and 
American girls can do as they please here, un- 
molested, for they have always so respected 
themselves that all respect them.' We were glad 
of the compliment for our countrywomen. The 
new-made wife and husband, with bridesmaids 
and ^ assistants ' (as they term, here, the ushers) 
and their friends, passed from the church, 
with our best wishes. This noted church is 
Grecian in style. Its altars are of carved wood 
and gold. The huge bronze doors have illus- 
trations of the Ten Commandments in bas-relief. 
The altar is richly sculptured, and one portion 
of it represents angels bearing Magdalen to 
Paradise on their wings. Our good escort 
lights candles in all churches we enter, and 



82 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

the longest ones too, for the forgiveness of our 
sins, so I trust ere we leave this land we may 
be immaculate. 

Out of the church, with all its holy sacredness 
and beauty, into the sunlight and the bright- 
ness of the streets. A barouche is waiting for 
us, in which we are soon seated, and rapidly 
dashing along on the asphalt pavement of 
the most beautiful boulevard in the whole 
world, the Champs Elysees. The avenue is 
broad, flanked with stately residences and 
beautiful rows of elms and limes, and long 
shady parks. We sped along, meeting showy 
equipages filled with gay people, behind high 
steppers managed by light-colored costumed 
coachmen, with remarkably big buttons. Many 
are on horseback, and the broad sidewalks are 
filled with happy promenaders. Surely it was 
a merry sight, and all were enjoying it in the 
rich atmosphere of this lovely June day. We 
paused, to see the Arc de Triomphe, then 
passed under it to the Bois de Boulogne, a 
lovely park and driveway, with lakes, cool 
groves, fountains, cascades, rustic houses and 
seats, and everything beautiful to make it 



LETTER IV. 83 

what it is, a delightful resort. We alighted, 
sailed about the lake in a Cleopatra-like barge, 
sat at a vine-covered table, and drank the 
sweet milk that a pretty, black-eyed milkmaid 
brought to us fresh from her cow, and felt 
that this was our ^ life's holiday.' 

A lady, a Bostonian too, but whose home 
has been here for several years, said to me to- 
day : ^ And so you live in Boston. Why, it 
makes me blue to even think of Boston, with 
its stiff society, its spectacled women, and its 
doleful teas ! ' But I could not agree with her. 
Another lady, now living here, a woman of 
wealth and rare intelligence, told me that she 
spent a year in Boston, and that repeatedly she 
had been a guest at small parties and large 
ones, where she had not been introduced to 
any one of the assemblage. Such a neglect, in 
the best society of Europe, would be consid- 
ered a great breach of politeness or a marked 
rudeness. Here, all persons invited to meet at 
the house of a friend consider it almost obliga- 
tory to speak with each other, if by chance or 
oversight they are not presented, and it is the 
custom for the hostess of an invited company 



84 



A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 



to have her daughters and theu' young lady 
friends move amongst the guests, to see that 
all are introduced, and are having a pleasant, 
enjoyable time. 

Shall I tell you our menu for dinner to- 
night? It will be, I am sure, rather different 
from your own. But at our Paris home every- 
thing is deliciously cooked and served, and E. 
says we had better make the most of it ; food 
will not be as temptingly prepared for us in 
Germany. First, soup, followed by fish, cheese, 
and radishes, preserves and mustard, roast 
beef and maccaroni, potatoes, chicken and 
salad, cake, strawberries, cherries, and apricots, 
with wines of various kinds, all followed by 
coffee. 

I forgot to tell you that in our drive to- 
day we met Sara Bernhardt ; she looked very 
bright and happy, and not at all the dying 
' Camille' that she was the last time my eyes 
gazed upon her. She has a fine home here, 
and receives all who choose to call upon her 
one day each week. She is charitable, helpful, 
and sympathetic to all, and the Parisians adore 
her. 



LETTER IV. 85 

Paris, June 29^/i. — It rained to-day, for 
even in Paris it must sometimes rain. We 
went to the galleries of the Louvre early, and 
were so absorbed that we remained until 4 p. m. 
E., our escort to-day, once lived six years in 
Paris, and the paintings in the Louvre were 
his old friends, so that the information he gave 
us was of great instruction and benefit. F., 
too, had been well drilled for the enjoyment 
by studying the old masters and by her read- 
ings of the schools of early art. Not being an 
artist myself like my two companions, I could 
scarcely enter their sphere of enjoyment, or see 
with their eyes, so looked in my own way. 
This, you know, is the largest gallery in the 
world, and contains the most of the valuable 
works of all the great masters, Rubens, Raphael, 
Murillo, Titian, Rembrandt, Claude Lorraine, 
Paul Veronese, and other world-renowned art- 
ists. The works of no artist are placed here 
until the artist himself has been dead ten years 
or more ; they are retained in the Luxembourg 
galleries during the life of the painter. E. 
wished us to take certain pictures of Rubens 
first, of which artist he has great knowledge 



86 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

and a keen appreciation. He says it is impossi- 
ble for us to see best many pictures in a short 
time, so we must take the best pictures and see 
them in many ways. The allegorical pictures 
relating to Marie de Medici were our first 
study, but the angels were very unangelic-look- 
ing to me. Each one looked as if tipping the 
scales at two hundred pounds would be an easy 
matter. In fact, all of Rubens women that I 
have so far seen look more earthly than spirit- 
ual. These pictures bring up many thoughts of 
the hapless Marie de Medici, a woman of great 
beauty, and of Richelieu, the intriguing, power- 
ful Cardinal, whose influence was so great over 
the King, her son, Louis XIII. This woman, 
Rubens so often painted, died at last, after the 
implacability of Richelieu caused her to be ban- 
ished from France, in the attic of the house 
where Rubens was born, in Cologne. The 
Salon Carre contains the great treasures of the 
Louvre, or the most of them. Here we saw 
the indeed beautiful painting of Mary Anoint- 
ing the Feet of Jesus, and the even more won- 
derful one of The Marriage Feast at Cana, 
both by Paul Veronese. I cannot imagine a 



LETTER IV. 



87 



human mincl even conceiving such a picture, 
much more putting it on canvas. It is simply 
perfect. Titian's works have a great charm 
for me, and Raphael's, also. We roam from 
room to room ; my delighted companions turn 
their attentions to me often with remarks 
of this nature : ' Now do look at this; it is one 
of the great works of the world.' 'You re- 
member this happened in the reign of King or 
Queen So-and-so.' 'You recollect the story 

in the Old Testament of / and so forth 

and so on! I look; say, Oh yes! Am 
sometimes a little inwardly muddled, but 
quietly decide to know for myself what I 
honestly like best. Of all the Madonnas, I 
like Murillo's the most. His colors, not as 
positive as those of Rubens, are warm, deep, 
and rich, with a certain peculiar softness of fin- 
ish that no other artist has. Surely genius is 
God-given. We made no attempt to see the 
antiquities this time, but could not leave with- 
out paying our respects to the most beautiful 
of all women — the Venus de Milo. Our ever- 
gallant escort says, ' No ; ' no woman can be the 
most beautiful to him, who cannot extend her 



88 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

arms to greet him ; but beautiful she is. A 
whole day in the Louvre, and yet compara- 
tively how little of it have we seen. This 
evening we saw ' Adrienne Lecouvrer ' played 
at the Comedie Frangaise. 

Saturday, June 30th. — The sun shone for 
us brightly again this morning, and we took an 
early drive through the always attractive streets 
and parks of Paris. Early as it was, crowds of 
people were to be seen, driving, walking, and 
sitting in the ' sidewalk cafes,' and under the 
trees, chatting, laughing, and everybody seem- 
ing to have plenty of leisure time. How is it 
that no one appears to be in a hurry here ? One 
reason that the ladies have so much more time 
is because their housekeeping cares are so much 
less than those of Americans. Always, all of 
the laundry work is sent out, and much of the 
cooking of a household is done outside : bread, 
pastry, cakes, and roasts are prepared in special 
establishments, and sent hot and deliciously 
cooked to private tables, without a suggestion 
of ^ bakehouse ' flavor about them. The servants, 
or one of them does all the ' planning ' and the 
marketing, rendering her accounts to her mis- 



LETTER IV. 89 

tress weekly. Everything connected with the 
domestic part of a Paris home runs very 
smoothly, and with much less care and expense 
than in Bostonian homes. I remember once 
visiting a dear, busy, neat, systematic young 
housekeeper at her home in a country town in 
New England. One Monday morning her 
maid of all work overslept, and we heard this 
wide-awake, orderly mistress call her, saying, 
' Katie, get up ; why, it is seven o'clock now, and 
to-day is washing day, to-morrow will be iron- 
ing day, and the next day baking.' There are 
no such days in Paris ! And I should think 
Parisians would say, "^For which we devoutly 
give thanks.' 

The gardens of the Tuileries brought up 
thoughts of Eugenie, who used to love the spot 
so well. The once-beautiful Empress whom the 
French people followed is now never mentioned, 
not even a picture of her seen in Paris win- 
dows ; and once when I spoke of her to a 
dealer in photographs, asking why he had 
not a picture of her, he answered, ^ Remember 
Sedan.' 

The long walk in the cool, crisp air made us 



90 A BCJNDLE OF LETTERS. 

hungry, and seeing some neatly prepared tables 
near we seated ourselves for a luncheon. The 
bouillon was good, and the chop fairly so, and 
the charges reasonable we thought, but when 
the bill was presented we were charged extra 
for service, for the napkins we used, and for 
the chairs we sat on. I asked the gargon why 
they did not charge for the air we breathed. 
Moral ! Always make your bargains in Paris 
before consummating them. 

The Luxembourg was near, and we spent 
most of the rest of the day in its galleries. 
Some of the masterpieces of Rosa Bonheur, 
Gerome, Couture and Meissonier are here. To 
see Cabanel's Venus was of itself a great delight. 
I remember seeing the portrait of Miss Wolf, 
in the Metropolitan Art Museum, in New York, 
painted by this same Alexander Cabanel. There 
are two of Henner's pictures here, one exquis- 
itely lovely. He is considered one of the best 
living painters of the nude ; his figures are re- 
markably graceful and modest, poetical studies 
of the flesh ; and it is often an intense delight 
and relief to turn toward them, from the nudes 
of some other artists. We have seen his works 



LETTER IV. 91 

also in several private collections, and wherever 
there is a Henner there is always a crowd, so 
lovely are they. One characteristic of them we 
observed, namely, that in every picture of his 
that we have seen his figures are not far from 
a lake, brook, or river, with the figure partially 
hid by shrubbery and trees, and one of our trio 
said that he was forcibly reminded of the old 
nursery rhyme, — 

" ' Mother, may I go out to swim ? ' 
' Yes, my darling daughter ; 
Hang your clothes on a hickory limb — 
But don't go near the water ! ' " 

A stroll in the beautiful gardens of the Lux- 
embourg, and a visit to the Jardin des Plantes, 
with its botanical, mineralogical, and geologi- 
cal museums, and a visit to the monkeys — 
the cutest of all monkeys, — finished the day ; 
and to-night we are to dine with a duchess. 
How fortunate we have a ' noble ' escort. 
Otherwise, although we did ^ come over in the 
Mayflower,' we might not have been called upon 
by, and invited to dine with, the Duke and 

Duchess de la R at their chateau near San 

Cloud. 



92 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

Some of the customs here seem very odd to 
us. After a couple are married, they go to 
drive about the city ; the wealthier class in 
their own carriages, the less wealthy in hired 
ones, and the poor on foot, but all arrayed in 
the wedding dress, with veil and the orange 
flowers. We met eight brides in one after- 
noon's drive, and we have seen many others 
in the different museums and galleries. The 
French are indeed a pleasure-loving people. 
Every green spot, and they are legion, here is 
bright with life. Lovely children are out in 
great numbers with their dark-eyed, handsome 
honnes. These nurses are very picturesque, 
with their white-frilled turbans on, from which 
hang lengths of broad white ribbon nearly to 
their feet. The babies themselves are gener- 
ally costumed in the richest of laces, and often 
look uncomfortably loaded down with the big 
white hats even the tiniest of them wear, well 
covered with ostrich plumes. All seem to 
enjoy life — the middle classes and the poor in 
their own Avay as entirely as the rich in theirs. 
The parks and numerous gardens are filled 
with women sitting about with work or book 



LETTER IV. 93 

in hand, seemingly perfectly contented with 
their condition and beautiful surroundings. 
They wander into the cathedrals and picture 
galleries at will, and surely such constant 
familiarity with beauty and art must have a 
refining influence. Of these poorer people, 
who have really been taught nothing, some 
have more knowledge of art than many Amer- 
icans who have studied it. I, one morning, 
asked my chambermaid to assist me in wrap- 
ping up a few photographs I had in my room. 
In doing so she told me I ought to get 
Murillo's ^ Birth of the Virgin ' and Titian's 
* Holy Family,' and recommended several art 
stores as excellent places to select photographs 
and etchings. The many and great variety of 
exhibitions of pictures here, offer instruction to 
all and are a constant spur to one's ambition. 
The Parisians should be thanked by the peo- 
ple of every nation for throwing open their 
public institutions to all classes to enter ' with- 
out money and without price.' Paris thus 
gives freely to all who will accept a liberal 
education. The Comedie Frangaise and the 
Conservatoire of Music and Acting give free 



94 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

instruction to all who have talent sufficient to 
be admitted. With the French people's love 
for the beautiful, with their especial love for 
Paris, with their seeming contentment of posi- 
tion, with their hospitality and their never-fail- 
ing politeness as we now see them, it does not 
seem possible that in times of rebellion and 
riot they so lose themselves as to burn and 
destroy that they have so dearly loved, and 
that they become disloyal and unreasonable 
toward each other. The burning of the Tuil- 
eries in 1871 was an exhibition of their insan- 
ity in times of excitement. 

Here is my Paris edition of the New York 
Herald. I bless James Gordon Bennett every 
time I take up this little paper, so grateful am 
I to him for it. After struggling with French 
conversation, French books, French signs, 
French everything, all the day, it is a delight 
to me to see my own language in print, to see 
American news, and often to see the name of 
some one I know or know of. Oh, we do not 
realize how dear America is to us until we are 
far from her shores. 

Paris, Sunday, July \st. — . And so the 



LETTER IV. 95 

month dedicated to Juno is really gone. A 
month filled with joys has it been to us ! It 
does not seem possible that it can be July. 
It has been so cool here, — cool and bright, 
just the weather for tramps. 

First of all, dear, I must tell you a little of 
our dinner with the Duchess last night. How 
I did wish you were with me, and how every 
hour you are in loving thought and memory 
with me everywhere. I know just what you 
will do to-day. But no one will ever know all 
the kind acts you perform, all the sacrifices 
you make, save the recording angels. We gave 
considerable time to our toilettes last evening, 
even to having a French hairdresser. F. 
looked * smart ' in her Worth-made pink gown, 
and in French conversation did us all credit. 
Only two of the sixteen guests spoke English, 
beside our host and hostess and ourselves. 
We were not only cordially received, but affec- 
tionately. Our hostess was charming in face 
and grace, and her husband not far behind. 
The halls, dining-rooms, and salon of the 
house were immense, with polished floors, and 
rugs, and the woodwork and furniture of the 



96 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

latter in white and gold. Everything was 
massive and stately, but with a cheerful, bright 
effect. The menu consisted of fourteen 
courses, served table d'hote. The hostess was 
first helped, then the oldest lady at the table, 
and so on, down to the youngest lady present. 
Then the gentlemen in the same manner. I 
should think this custom would sometimes 
puzzle the waiters to know whom first to 
serve. The table was decorated with flowers, 
and the cumbrous gold candelabra were, with 
the gold service, very imposing. There was 
not an article of silver on the table. Every 
utensil was gold, china, or glass. It is a great 
error to suppose that, because Frenchwomen 
love dress and pleasure, they are not de- 
voted mothers, true wives, and intelligent 
companions. Of course there are exceptions, 
and so there are in all countries. Our little 
party of last night was unusually bright, in- 
telligent, and familiar with American history, 
her institutions, and her literature. They 
thought our language the hardest of all lan- 
guages to comprehend or to speak. They 
referred to our many words ending with ' gh,' 



LETTER IV. 97 

and each one pronounced so entirely differ- 
ently. A gentleman who had been in New 
York said, if a business was to be stopped 
there they ' wound it up/ if clocks were to go 
they wound them up. Strings were wound up, 
and he one day received a telegram from the 
wife of a friend whom he expected to meet, 
which read thus : ' Henry is wound up for the 
day ; hopes to see you to-morrow.' Did not 
know whether Henry was ' stopped ' or 
'going,' but understood later that he was 
indisposed. They asked us many questions 
about our own city, and one lady told me that 
she read in a paper that not long ago a man 
was imprisoned for preaching on Boston Com- 
mon, but she supposed it was a mistake, as 
such a thing could scarcely have taken place 
in a free country. After dinner we had 
music and dancing, and bade our entertainers 
' Bon soir,' having had a delightful evening 
with them, and feeling that the nice points 
of the social code, with dukes and duchesses, 
are not much different from our own. 

Sunday in Paris is a great contrast to our 
New England Sunday. People go to church, 



98 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

to be sure, but they go to the theatre after if 
they wish to, and think it all right. It is 
the one great day for families to go into the 
parks and the woods and the gardens near 
the city. The larger shops are closed, not 
because it is Sunday, but because one day in 
the week is demanded by the employees for 
rest and recreation. Theatres, circuses, and 
hundreds of places of amusement are open, 
and are all thronged, notwithstanding the great 
exodus into the suburbs. One can hardly 
blame clerks and working people, who are in 
cages, as it were, every other day, for taking 
Sunday to see the green hills, breathe the coun- 
try air, and gather flowers with their little 
ones, for Monday puts them in harness again. 
Going to places of amusement on Sunday is 
not just our way, but we are not here to criti- 
cise. 

After early service in the American Church 
we took a boat up the Seine for St. Cloud, 
where have lived many kings of France. The 
palace where Eugenie, in the height of her 
popularity, so magnificently entertained, has 
never been rebuilt since its destruction in the 



LETTER IV. 99 

siege of 1870. We sat on the broad, handsome 
steps which had led to the palace, with the 
leafy avenues of the parks before lis, over 
which the lovely Eugenie, with her imperial 
husband, and the ladies of her court, clad in 
their costumes of the chase, had many times 
cantered. Here they entertained, at certain 
seasons, sovereigns, princes of the blood, 
ambassadors, and ' lords and ladies of high 
degree,' and everything that could be devised 
or money procure was placed before them for 
their pleasure. Music, games, dancing, and 
feasting went on — and the people paid for it. 
Although there never was and never could be 
the slightest unfavorable criticism upon the 
moral life of the Empress, her intense love of 
gayety, admiration, dress, and power caused 
her to forget the thousands of suffering poor 
so near her. Had she given more thought to 
them, with a helping hand, she could so easily 
have made their dark days less so. Beauty of 
person and power are rare gifts, but if they so 
dazzle as to make dim the more divine gift of 
a charitable heart and hand, they are to be 
undesired, and — 



100 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

' It were better to be lowly born 
And range with humble lives in content.' 

But the golden-haired, sweet-faced Empress, 
in her green riding habit, with the flowing 
white plumes in her hat, rides on under the 
arches of these beautiful linden trees, and is 
gone from our thoughts, and the memory of a 
gray-haired, childless widow in Chiselhurst 
rises before us. God help her ! The foun- 
tains and cascades here, scintillating in the rays 
of the sun this bright morning, are beautiful, 
and the walks about are superb. We went 
to the very top of the hill, and were well 
repaid by the admirable views of Paris, the 
Seine, and the surrounding scenery. 

Our long tramp made us hungry, so we 
turned our footsteps toward the cafe at the 
gate. The tables inside looked very attractive, 
but my comrades thought the ones outside 
more so, so we seated ourselves at one in a 
vine-covered arbor, for dinner table d'hote. 
We have got so used to eating out-of-doors — 
in arbors in the country, and on pavements in 
town, — that you need not be surprised if 
I, some Sunday morning, invite you to baked 



LETTER IV. 101 

beans and brown bread on the curbstones of 
the Oxford, and every bean served as a course. 
The town of St. Cloud is built on the slope 
of the hill. The streets are very narrow, and 
the stores to-day are all open and well filled. 
Wandering about, I was attracted by the sound 
of music in a quaint-looking little church and 
stepped in. Upon coming out, my companions 
were nowhere visible. I sat down in a con- 
spicuous place on some steps, to wait for them 
to find me. A richly dressed Frenchman 
walked past me several times. I felt that I 
was the object of his gaze — so looked in every 
direction but toward him, for here let me say 
that the French are really prolonged starers, 
notwithstanding their uniform courtesy and 
politeness. My imagination got the better of 
me, and I prepared for battle, trying to think 
of annihilating names in " French, that I might 
call him should he dare address me, and look- 
ing at the strong handle of my parasol with 
renewed confidence. Secondly, I thought it 
might be good policy to pretend to be deaf 
and dumb — yes, should he speak, I will really 
put my finger to my ears and my mouth and 



102 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

he will think I am a dummy, planned I. Thus, 
with a reinforced feeling of safety and victory, 
I looked squarely up at him. Imagine my sur- 
prise when he raised his hat, and in fair Eng- 
lish said : ^ Pardon me, but are you not Mrs. 

of Boston?' It was Monsieur C , 

who formerly taught French in my family. I 
need not tell you that I gave him a vigorous 
Yankee hand-shaking. He left America a 
year ago to take possession of an inherited prop- 
erty. Moral : Consider every man, everywhere, a 
gentleman, until you have proof that he is not. 
A Frenchman never sits when a lady in his 
presence stands, nor does he ever smoke or ex- 
pectorate in a lady's presence. Do the Ameri- 
cans ? A French lady asked me, and I had to 
say with humility, ^ Yes.' After this little inci- 
dent my friends appeared, more worried about 
me than I about them, and we soon took 
' top seats ' on steam-cars and were carried to 
Versailles. 

The gardens of Versailles are superior in 
beauty to any others that I have seen. I wish 
I could give you a good idea of them, as they 
appear to me this lovely day. Beautiful trees. 



LETTER IV. 103 

shrubs, flowers of every size, fragrance, and 
color, orangeries, conservatories, palms, ferns, 
lakes, vine-covered seats, shaded walks, arbors, 
statues, grottoes cool and mossy, cascades, and 
the large fountains playing, with the Palace 
beyond, and the blue sky above it all — were 
indeed worth seeing. Linger longer outside 
we would like to, but the big, huge Palace is 
before us, and we must see a little of its con- 
tents. The galleries, or rooms, are of vast size, 
and are filled with paintings, sculpture, bric- 
a-brac, tapestries, and articles of intense histor- 
ical interest. The State apartments, the living 
rooms of kings and queens, the theatre, and 
the chapel, with their frescoes and paintings, 
are a delight to us. In a suite of eleven rooms 
are pictures illustrating all the most noted 
events in the history of France. A white 
marble statue of the Duke of Orleans is very 
beautiful and remarkably graceful. We also 
noticed a fine statue of Joan of Arc. The 
chamber of Louis XIV. is absorbingly inter- 
esting, and is one of the gems of the Palace. 
The ceiling was painted by Paul Veronese, 
and was brought here by Napoleon I. from 



104 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

Venice. It represents Jupiter punishing Crime, 
and is of itself a day's study, and more. The 
furniture and decorations of the room are 
rich and grand, said to be about as when the 
' Grand Monarque ' died in the room, entirely 
against his intentions and inclinations. The 
bedstead upon which he breathed his last, with 
the same hangings and coverlid, are here. It 
is a two-story one, and we wonder how he 
ever got on to it with any degree of dignity. 
This magnificent apartment of Louis Quatorze, 
peopled with ghosts of his time, brought to us 
many thoughts. This place, under his manage- 
ment, was made grand and beautiful, but at 
the cost of crippling the treasury of France 
and exciting discontent amongst her already 
overtaxed people, and it was not for their 
enjoyment, but for his own and his satellites '. 
In the queen's card room the painted ceiling, 
by Le Brun, represents France, dispensing 
peace and abundance to all. What a mockery ! 
At this very time, while royalty at Versailles 
was sipping wine from cups of gold, the 
hunger of the poor outside was beginning to 
make them mad. The painting of the mar- 



LETTER IV. 105 

riage of Louis XIV. with Maria Theresa, and 
some of the battle pieces, are fairly well done. 
All that one has ever read of the greatness of 
Louis XIV., the evil of Louis Qiiinze, and the 
horrors of the Revolution, comes to one's mind 
at Versailles. It seems to me that nowhere 
else could one so thoroughly feel and compre- 
hend France, — her history and her changes. 
We saw the room in which Louis Quinze died 
alone, of small-pox, just as if he had never 
been a king. We saw the narrow passage 
where the beautiful Marie Antoinette went 
through to escape the fury of the Parisian 
mob, while the brave, noble Swiss Guards were 
cut down like grass. We thought of her 
standing on the balcony, between her innocent 
little ones, crying in vain to the howling throng 
for mercy ; and yet Louis XVI., although 
a weak king, did not mean to be a bad one. 
F. says, her sympathy aroused for the ill-fated 
family, ^ How horrid the people were !' Yes ; 
but let not the name of Marie Antoinette 
make us forget the rights of the long-suffering 
and wronged people. These rulers were living 
in profligacy and luxury : the people, many 



106 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

of them, were in a starving condition, made so 
by the exorbitant demands upon them by 
Louis. Justice was not given them, and they 
took it, and the forced necessity of such ter- 
rible work made them maniacs. We feel sorry 
for mistaken royalty, and more sorry for the 
innocent, but let us go out into the beautiful 
gardens of Versailles, and see there the mul- 
titude enjoying its delights, instead of a few 
kings and queens, and be thankful. The 
palace and its gems are educators for them, 
and the gardens a place of rest, and may they 
ever thus remain. It was at Versailles that 
' good Queen Vic ' was royally entertained by 
Louis Napoleon, and it was also here that 
Emperor William was, later, crowned King of 
Prussia. 

A hasty visit to Great and Little Trianon 
ended our day at Versailles. The first named 
was built by Louis XIV. for Madam de Main- 
tenon, and although we had about had our 
fill of luxury, we grew enthusiastic over the 
Malachite Hall and the mosaics and bronzes 
we here saw. The Little Trianon, Louis XV. 
gave to Madame du Barry. Here we saw the 



LETTER IV. 107 

old state carriages and harnesses. Madame du 
Barry's carriage, in which she used to take 
her airings, cost 60,000 francs, and on state 
occasions she carried a bouquet of diamonds, 
which Louis had made for her at a cost of 
300,000 francs. She had also a dressing- 
stand of gold studded with gems, and two 
cupids held a crown of diamonds above it, so 
made that whenever the owner looked into 
the mirror this crown was reflected as if 
resting upon her own head. This is an exam- 
ple of the way the revenues of France were 
then expended. Is it any wonder that there 
was a revolution ? 

An open carriage took us to the station, 
and again we took our places, on top of a 
steam-car, for Paris. This would be a delight- 
ful way of riding if only the engine would 
be sufficiently polite to turn its smoke in 
another direction than our faces. We had a 
fine view of the city and its suburbs as we 
approached it, and with dirty faces, tired feet, 
and our hands filled with French wild flowers 
and grasses, we reached Paris ; and the ever- 
convenient cab soon landed us in Clement 



108 A BUNDLE OP LETTERS. 

Marot. A friend had sent us tickets for the 
theatre, but we decided that we would spend 
the evening in the pretty drawing-room of our 
hostess and make it as nearly like a Sunday 
evening at home as possible. One of our 
number remarked how fortunate no one of our 
party has felt at all homesick. A bunch arose 
in my throat, but I swallowed it down, and I 
have told no one that often, when I think of 
the dear ones far away, longings for a sight of 
their faces will creep in. 

Monday, July 2d. — Galleries and churches 
are not open to visitors on Mondays, so we 
planned for out-of-door sights to-day. The 
cheapness of these little, open barouches make 
us feel able to ride at any time. I wish I 
could take one home to Boston with me, cocher 
and all. We first went to the Arc d'Etoile, for 
the second time, and ascended to the top, for the 
views. It is said that the views from the Eiffel 
Tower, when completed, will surpass anything 
gained elsewhere, but those from the Arc 
d'Etoile are very grand. 

This huge, superb monument of Napoleon I. 
stands in a ^ round square ' called the ^ Place 



LETTER IV. 109 

d'Etoile.' From this street twelve beautiful 
avenues lead, somewhat like- spokes from the 
hub of a wheel. Now imagine this, and these 
streets built up with elegant residences, with 
pretty grounds about them, and the avenues 
filled with showy turnouts and merry throngs 
of people, promenading on the broad sidewalks, 
shaded by two rows of magnificent trees, and 
you get a little idea, with the picture I send you, 
of the Arc de Triomphe and its surroundings. 
The figures you see, which will look small on 
paper, are, some of them, over twenty feet high, 
representing Victory, Fame, etc. When we 
first walked under the arch, F. said, "^I think 
this is a good deal like walking under the body 
of Jumbo,' — which experience we once had. 

From the Arch we were driven straight 
down the beautiful Avenue des Champs Elysees 
to the Place de la Concorde, in which square 
stands the obelisk, the gift of the Pacha of 
Egypt. Immense bronze fountains are in the 
square, and large marble statues on pedestals, 
representing the country's largest cities, around 
it. It is a lovely, peaceful spot, this glorious 
morning, with no signs of the terrible deeds 



110 A BUNDLE OF LETTEKS. 

that were once enacted here. But here it was 
the guillotine stood and did its murderous work. 
Here the rabble surged, crying for more blood. 
Here Charlotte Corday, here Marie Antoin- 
ette, met death. And here heads were cut 
off at the rate of forty or fifty a day ; and men 
looked on, women sat about with their knit- 
ting, occasionally saying, ^ Look, there goes 
another.' 

Do not dwell upon such horrors ! we will go 
and buy some ribbons ! Our first look into the 
Bon Marche. What a beautiful store it is, to 
be sure. The largest in the world. How the 
bargains tempt us ! The clerks look bright 
and fresh, and are remarkably well dressed and 
intelligent appearing. And they have reason to 
be — they are all partners of this great money- 
making establishment, and time, opportunities, 
and means given them for study. The little 
articles here, fans, ornaments, toilet articles, 
handkerchiefs, gloves, etc., are irresistible, so 
pretty and so cheap. In one apartment, cake, 
cookies, bread, crackers, wine, tea and coffee, 
and the very best of their kind, are served to 
all who come, gratuitously. Wanamaker's 



LETTER IV. Ill 

store in Philadelphia, and Shepard & Nor- 
well's, of Boston, are somewhat similar, — the 
first mentioned comparing very favorably, the 
second not as extensive but conducted partly 
on the same principle. 

Leaving the Bon Marche we knew we had 
got our money's worth, but had precious few 
coins left, so thought it a good time to see a 
little of the poorer class of this rich-appearing 
city. So into the Latin quarter are we driven. 
That sounds very intellectual and classical, but 
is really the old and poorer part of Paris. 
Here the streets are narrow, the men wear blue 
blouses, and the women look coarse and hard; 
exceptions there are, certainly, but such the 
general appearance. 

Next, to Pere La Chaise, the city of the dead. 
Much disappointed in its appearance. Does 
not compare with our beautiful Forest Hills. 
The walks are not well kept. Immortelles and 
shrivelled wreaths decorate the graves, instead 
of fresh flowers. Numerous monuments are 
here, and some very fine ones, but the most 
are costly without beauty. On the graves of 
children we saw toys, dolls, wooden horses, etc. 



112 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

We saw Rachel's monument, and that of Abe- 
lard and Heloise, which is really beautiful. F. 
said she always meant to make a pilgrimage to 
this spot, from pure sympathy. We saw many 
names, on monuments, familiar to us from his- 
tory ; but as a whole, es^ery thing is too mixed 
up for it to be considered a beautiful cemetery. 
We saw a young girl bending over a grave in 
tears, and our own fell for her. She left a 
wreath on the, to her, precious earth, composed 
of white immortelles, with words made of the 
yellow flowers embedded in the white, which 
read, as nearly as we could translate, ' To the 
loved man who was to have been my husband.' 
That told the sad story. We thought Victor 
Hugo rested here, but one of our trio said no ; 
at the Pantheon, he felt sure. ' Well, he was 
a good and great man enough to have had two 
burial places,' said F. And so say we all of 
us ! 

We went to the Hippodrome this evening, 

— sort of a fashionable circus ; but not caring 
much for the entertainment, came out and 
walked about to see a little of Paris by gaslight 

— and such a sight ! The entire population 



LETTER IV. 113 

of the city seems to be poured into the streets. 
Bands of music playing in the squares ; the 
sidewalk cafes have their tables surrounded 
with ^ evening dressed ' ladies and gentlemen. 
There are illuminated swings, merry-go-rounds, 
inclined planes, roller skating platforms, for the 
children, and all seeming to be respectably con- 
ducted. Paris is a clean city ; the streets are 
like a well-swept floor all the time, no dirt to be 
seen. Two-thirds of the families live in apart- 
ment houses. These are better arranpfed than 
our Boston flats. The rooms are spacious, and 
no dark, windowless ones, as there is always an 
open court in the centre, to admit light and air, 
and about the windows facing these courts are 
balconies, pleasant to sit out on. The courts 
are cultivated, and either have shrubbery and 
flowers growing, or have grassy lawns, and this 
is all cared for by the landlords. The rents 
are much lower, also, than with us. 

Tuesday, July 3c?. — Too quickly the days 
go by. The weather is so deliciously fair and 
bright this morning that it is a joy to be alive. 
Out into the sunshine we go, ' not caring a 
sou where, if only these days could last for- 



114 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

ever/ said F. Yes, Paris is indeed fasci- 
natins", but we must remember that life is 
not all a holiday, nor would we wish it to 
be. We owe to our Maker something higher 
in aim and in good works. We owe to our 
beloved country ourselves, and the help of our 
acts and purposes. When human beings are 
born and bred in the same air, speak the same 
tongue, it is a disloyal thing to turn faces from 
each other. ' United we stand.' We heard 
of a party of Americans finding difficulty in 
entering Germany not long ago because they 
had no passports, so I thought we had better 
fortify ourselves with the documents. Hunted 
up the abode of the American Legation. 
Found the apartments to resemble the rooms of 
a private family, more than those of business. 
We were duly questioned, measured, and pen- 
portraits taken of us, and after a sufficient 
amount of ' red-tape delay,' the desired papers 
were in our hands. Very likely we shall not 
be obliged to use them, but they serve to tell 
us how tall we are, and, better still, that my 
nose is straight, which I never knew before. 
We next went to the Pantheon, which is 



LETTER IV. 115 

something of a reproduction of St. Peter's at 
Rome, and is now devoted to receiving the 
remains of great men who have merited the 
gratitude of France. The church was formerly 
called the church of St. Genevieve, she having 
bean the patron saint of Paris. There are some 
beautiful frescoes here relatino- to her life. 
The rich Corinthian columns, the marble 
groups, frescoes, and bas-reliefs, are all an in- 
teresting study. France is represented bestow- 
ing honors on her noted sons. On the frieze 
is this inscription : ' Aux Grands Hommes La 
Patrie Reconnaissante.' There are some beau- 
tiful frescoes here by Cabanel, which represent 
different scenes in the life of St. Louis. The 
one where Blanche of Castile, his mother, is 
talking with him is very lovely. The artist 
has succeeded in investing the faces of St. 
Louis with much beauty and spirituality. I 
looked at these paintings with great satisfac- 
tion, as I admire the results of Cabanel's brush 
always. I thought, too, not only of St. Louis, 
but of Louis S. S., and wished I could see his 
pleasant face. I have so often called him my. 
St. Louis. Please tell him this when you see 



116 



A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 



him, and love to them all. Yet, with all of the 
objects I have told you of, and many, many 
others, the interior of the Pantheon has a 
cold, bare look. Underneath this building are 
immense vaults, and Victor Hugo's remains are 
here. The coffin, covered with cloth, mounted 
and embroidered with silver, stands on trestles 
facing the tomb of Kousseau, — although the 
remains of the latter are at Geneva. A huge 
pyramid of immortelles is before us, that were 
brought, by those who loved the great man, on 
the day of his funeral. All that was mortal 
of him is here, but a mind that could give ^ Les 
Miserables ' must be working for good still, in 
the ^ great somewhere.' 

Noticing the interest I felt in everything 
pertaining to Victor Hugo, a Paris friend, with 
us to-day, said, ' Let us sit down and rest near 
these withered blossoms, and I will tell you a 
little about his funeral, which took place just 
three years ago this month, and of which 
I was an eye-witness.' Although Victor Hugo 
was born an aristocrat, and was the greatest 
poet of France, his sympathy and love for the 
common people, and his strong and ear- 



LETTER IV. 117 

nestly avowed republican tendencies, led him 
to request in his will that he should be carried 
to his grave in the hearse of the poor. And 
although this was done, never were such prepa- 
rations made before for the celebration and the 
honoring of any dead. France claimed him 
as her greatest, noblest son. His body was 
laid in state, under the Arch of Triumph, on a 
catafalque draped with black velvet embroid- 
ered with silver, standing in a bank of flowers. 
Bands of crape were draped from the top of 
the huge arch to the ground. Through the 
day, and through the night, torches were 
lighted, and thousands of people visited the 
spot. It was known that he said it would 
be his choice to be laid without ceremony 
by the side of his wife, in the little coun- 
try churchyard, but the people would not 
have it thus ; only to the Pantheon should he 
be carried ! But the Pantheon bore a visible 
cross, indicating dedication to the Roman 
church. Huo-o could not rest there. His reli- 
gion was of no sect. He believed in God and 
loved Him. He believed in his fellow-man — 
loved and helped him. His creed was the 



118 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

Golden Rule, and he lived by it. The Govern- 
ment ordered the cross removed from the build- 
ing, and it was done, and on June 1st, 1885, 
all that was mortal of Victor Hugo — whose 
motto was ever ' Fraternity, Equality, and Lib- 
erty ' — was carried there, followed by the great- 
est and wisest citizens of France, her ministers, 
her soldiers, and her people. We arose, laid 
our corsage ornament — a beautiful fleur-de- 
lis — by the great man's last resting-place, 
and turned away. 

By the way, the French love this flower, 
the national emblem of their country. There 
is a legend about it, that runs like this : Clovis, 
who was an infidel, went to battle with the 
Germans. He fought bravely, but was losing 
ground, when he remembered his young 
Queen's faith in God. He called in his despair 
upon this Great Being the Christians so trusted 
in, pledging himself to this God's service for- 
ever if He would but give him this one victory. 
The battle was his, and he was immediately 
baptized. During the solemn ceremony an 
angel appeared and threw about King Clovis 
an exquisite banner embroidered with the lovely 



LETTER IV. 119 

flowers of the fleur-de-lis. From that time 
to the French Revohition the kings of France 
bore the flower on their banners. 

From the Pantheon to the Hotel des Inval- 
ides, a comfortable home for disabled soldiers 
and for aged ones, containing kitchens, dormi- 
tories, libraries, museums, etc. We chatted 
with a very old soldier with but one leg, and 
he said that he was much happier with that 
one than most men were with two legs, so well 
was he there cared for. Next, to the Tomb of 
Napoleon the First, and I should have known it 
to have been his burial place had I opened my 
eyes upon it unexpectedly, anywhere, so '■ Nap- 
oleonically ' magnificent is it all, in the Church 
of the Invalides, so called. Napoleon so loved 
Paris, that in his will he requested ' that his 
body might rest on the banks of the Seine, 
amongst the French people he loved so well.' 
Light for the interior of this building comes 
through violet-colored glass in the immense 
cupola, and falls with a peculiar, weird efPect 
upon the sarcophagus, which seems to be of 
granite, and rests upon two large blocks 
of different colored stone, one upon the 



120 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

other, making a high pile. The foundation 
upon which this all stands is a crown of laurels, 
in green marble, on a floor of black and white, 
and upon which are seen the names of many of 
his victories. Twelve victories are also repre- 
sented by the same number of colossal statues. 
The crypt containing the sarcophagus is 
round, and immediately under the dome, in the 
exact centre, and has around it a marble rail- 
ing. We went down into this crypt, around 
the sarcophagus, to a chapel, where we saw the 
very sword he wore at Austerlitz, the insignia 
he wore, the battle colors, and the crown of 
gold given to him by the citizens of Cher- 
bourg. At the farther end is the statue of the 
Emperor, with the characteristic lines of his 
face strongly portrayed, and it is clothed in 
the imperial robes. The gallery leading to this 
is always lighted by bronze funeral lamps. 
Other chapels, dedicated to different saints, are 
richly decorated, and the remains of a number 
of the relatives of Napoleon rest within them. 
At the entrance to the tomb, as the whole build- 
ing or church is called, are two sarcophagi, 
dedicated, the one to Marshal Duroc, and the 



LETTER IV. 121 

other to Marshal Bertrand, the devoted and 
true friends of the Emperor in his hours of 
trial. Way high up in the cupola, which is, 
I have already told you, right over the sarcoph- 
agus containing Napoleon's dust, is a beautiful 
picture of Jesus, in the midst of angels, look- 
ing tenderly down. This crypt is in the cen- 
tre to be sure, and yet is in front of steps 
which lead to the beautiful altar. The steps are 
of white marble, and the high, superb altar is 
of both black and white marble, with a canopy 
of gold, beneath which is a figure of Christ on 
the cross. The cost of this entire monument 
was nearly two million dollars, and is all so rich 
and effective that I hope my description of it 
will enable you to see it, a little, as with my 
eyes. The life of conquest and glory, defeat 
and suffering, which this man knew is without 
a parallel. His spirit left the body in obscu- 
rity and exile ; that body now rests in the cost- 
liest of mausoleums. Here in this very city he 
once lived in a garret, and wandered hopelessly 
about seeking employment ; here also he lived 
in palaces, and ruled everything before him. 
We have seen the Hotel de la Colonnade, Rue 



122 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

des Capucines, where lie was married to 
Josephine, and it was at the Tuiieries his 
divorce from her was proclaimed. His ambition 
was indeed his ruling passion, when he could 
put from him the woman who loved him, say- 
ing to her, 'Josephine, thou knowest I love 
thee ; to thee alone do I owe the only moments 
of true happiness that I have ever had, but my 
destiny overrules my will.' Bying on his lonely 
bed, on the bleak, rude heights of St. Helena, 
without kith or kin to love him, what then to 
him were ambition, fame, or victories, even 
such as his had been ? 

We spent the rest of the day in the Cluny, 
an extensive old museum, containing statues, 
paintings, armor, and wonderfully beautiful tap- 
estries, and rare antiquities of all descriptions. 
One exquisite and very odd piece of pottery so 
interested me, being entirely different from any- 
thing I had ever before seen, that I asked one 
of the near attendants where it came from ; he 
answered, ' Hades.' Fearing I did not under- 
stand him, I asked the question for the second 
time, and called my companions to interpret, 
but 'Hades' he repeated, and we could say 



LETTER IV. 123 

no more. F. said it seemed well baked, and 
told us a story of an Englishman who was 
travelling in France, and had with him a 
French courier, the latter speaking English a 
little, but making some peculiar translations. 
The English gentleman asked concerning a 
friend whom he knew to be residing somewhere 
in France. The interpreter innocently assured 
him that his friend had gone to Thunder in 
Burgundy. The Englishman, not knowing of 
the town Tounerre, drew his own conclusions. 
Wednesday, July 4:th. — A pleasant surprise 
awaited us this morning. Our hostess, in our 
honor, had thrown from our balcony our own 
glorious flag ! Our stars and stripes ! None 
other as beautiful in all the world floats. It 
seemed a part of our own dear land, our home 
and friends. We are up in the fifth story ; the 
horses are kept in the first. The higher up 
the rooms are, the more desirable are they con- 
sidered here, and the greater is the rent. We 
took an early drive, then spent a little time 
shopping, and made our way to the monu- 
mental chapel containing the tombs and monu- 
ments of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI., 



124 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

called the Chapel Expiaton^e. Here is a beau- 
tiful statue of the unfortunate Queen, and one 
also of her husband, on the pedestal of which 
is inscribed, in letters of gold, his will, in which 
he commends his wife and children to his 
Maker, and expresses a wish that his wife may 
be allowed to keep their children, for her ma- 
ternal tenderness for them he has never doubted. 
It all expresses the thoughts and feelings of a 
good man. The remains of the brave Swiss 
Guard who so faithfully defended the royal 
family, are also here. 

A little more sight-seeing, a few social calls 
made, last lingering glances at the Palais 
Royal and the Rue de Rivoli shops, and home 
to dine. After dinner we, with the entire 
household, went to an out-of-door fete, in the 
streets and on the sidewalks of Paris, and a 
grotesque, comical, ridiculous celebration it was. 
Old and young were dancing in the streets; 
open booths for shooting, angling, and all sorts 
of games of chance were well patronized ; cheap 
shows, theatres, concerts, cycloramas, and pano- 
ramas, all in full blast, and Punch and Judy 
doing their part vigorously ; a beautiful girl, 



LETTER IV. 125 

with a fine voice, and dressed in white silk, thus 
exposed to the public gaze, was giving a con- 
cert in the open air, and the crowd about her 
were really ladies and gentlemen ; every jim- 
crack ever manufactured was for sale in the 
miles of tents temporarily erected ; — and alto- 
gether it was a strange sight. I could not have 
believed it possible that intelligent men and 
women could have enjoyed such a conglomera- 
tion, but they seemed to. At midnight, after 
walking some distance to find our cabs, we were 
driven to Rue Clement Marot, through the 
Arch, and this grand monument looked even 
more grand in the full blaze of the electric 
lights. To-morrow we regretfully leave this 
beautiful city and our pleasant friends, who 
have done so much to make our stay here a 
happy one. Whatever is rich, Paris is richer. 
Whatever is grand, Paris is grander ! What- 
ever is beautiful, Paris is more so. I hope to 
see it all again. 

July 5th. — We left Paris at 10 A. m. to-day, 
leaving the house early enough to step into St. 
Chapelle for one more look at the incomparable 
rose window and the other remarkably beau- 



126 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

tiful stained-glass windows of this gorgeous 
church. The morning was a bright one, and 
as the rays of the sun streamed in upon us, 
through the rich colors of the glass, and 
minofled with the delicate blue tone reflected 
from the arched roof of the edifice, the 
effect was glorious. This exquisite ceiling is 
thickly dotted with gilt stars. The whole in- 
terior is decorated with gilt diamonds, with 
paintings of fleur-de-lis, St. Louis's flower 
between. We went into the little chamber 
where the saintly King used to sit and listen 
to the church services, through a window open- 
ing into the nave. On reaching the station we 
found our friends waiting for us, to give us a 
pleasant send-off toward Geneva. 




LETTER V. 

We cannot be French very much longer, 
and must turn our tongue into German. E. 
does not accompany us, so our own interpreters 
we shall have to be. Our carriage contained, 
beside ourselves, a French gentleman and an 
Italian gentleman, ' we four, and no more.' 
We sped on through villas and villages, and 
fields of bright wild flowers, with but little 
of interest, however, to detail. 

Our Italian seemed troubled in regard to an 
apparently new glove which he tore badly 
in raising a window. After a long, disconso- 
late look at it, he took from his travelling 
bag, needle and thread, and went carefully at 
work to repair the injury, but made a bad 
-tangle of it. As F. had implements handy, 



128 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

including a thimble, she offered to mend it for 
him. He accepted graciously, and his hand- 
some face grew luminous as he watched his 
pet glove grow whole under her deft fingers. 
What might he do for us? Would we drink 
wine with him ? ' No, thanks,' we said. What 
else he offered, to show his gratitude, we could 
not understand ; when out from his pocket 
he took a phrase-book of Italian and English 
words, and pointed to the sentence, ^ Shall I 
sing for you ?' We gladly acquiesced, and to 
our great delight he poured forth one of the 
grandest, sweetest voices I ever in my life 
listened to. It was like Brignoli's in his best 
days. He sung the choicest airs from different 
operas, and warbled, in his own musical lan- 
guage, tender songs. The distinguished-look- 
ing French gentleman joined us in thanking 
him for making the hours pass so delight- 
fully — for it is a long run from Paris to 
Geneva. We find fellow passengers, in this 
country, much more thoughtful of the comfort 
of others than they are in England or America. 
We also like the steam-cars here much better 
than our own, unless one always rides in a 



LETTER V. 129 

Pullman. Even many of the second class cars 
have high backs and cushions, all softly uphol- 
stered. Early in the afternoon a thunder- 
storm struck us, and we had heavy showers. 
Later the sun shone out brightly, and set 
gorgeously in red. At six p. m. we made our 
first stop, at Dijon, and had at the station a fine 
table d'hote dinner, wine included, and we did 
all justice, for we were as hungry as bears, not 
having provided ourselves with a luncheon, 
thinking we should stop somewhere for one. 
Kemember this, all who go from Paris to Dijon. 
Much refreshed, we continued our journey to 
Macon, where we had planned to spend the 
night, but our polite and helpful Frenchman, 
who had all along the road kindly given us 
much information of the country we came 
through, assured us that if we did so we could 
not reach Geneva until three p. m. the next 
day, but if we kept on to Ambrieau, and would 
spend the night there, we could take an early 
morning train and reach Geneva at eleven 
A. M. So this we decided to do, bidding here 
our kind informant adieu, as his home is in 
Lyons, hoping to be able in the future to 



130 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

accept his invitation to sometime go through 
his silk factory, under his escort. 

We rolled into the little station at Ambrieau 
about ten p. m., our Italian companion keep- 
ing on to Genoa, waving his last farewell from 
the car window, with a white silk handkerchief 
in one hand and a scarlet one in the other. 
To our dismay we found it raining in torrents, 
intensely dark, and not a car or carriage, nor 
man or beast, to be found. The only live 
article around was the station-agent, to whom 
we hurried back, fearing he too would disap- 
pear, which he was making hasty preparations 
to do. We ascertained from him that the 
principal inn of the place was more than a 
mile distant, and no way of reaching it at that 
hour of night but to walk. Near by, he said, 
was a small house where he thought we could 
get a room and be comfortably lodged, and 
assured us we should be safe. We could do 
nothing but accept. He piloted us across the 
street and into the front room of a house, 
where some men were sitting: around a table 
drinking beer. A pretty girl was waiting 
upon them, with whom our escort had some 



LETTER V. 131 

words, and without giving us attention she 
filled a glass with beer for him. We began 
to feel a little uncomfortable, and again asked 
our leader if we were safe. He answered 
* Oui, Qui ;' but still stood there. All at once 
we thought of his expected franc, on putting 
which into his hand he retreated, leaving us 
in the care of the pretty maid. She took our 
bags, and we followed her, through a dark 
rear room, then through a large bare kitchen, 
out into the back yard. She led us on, 
through the furious rain, up two long flights 
of stairs, built on the outside of the house, 
and on the landino^ unlocked a door with a 
huge iron key, which door creaked and 
squeaked on its hinges, as if they had not been 
disturbed for many a day. As getting the 
door open was the work of some minutes, we 
were pretty thoroughly soaked by the time we 
stepped into the queer-looking entry, with its 
stone floor and roughly plastered walls. Out 
of that we went into and through a long, nar- 
row, crooked hall, with a shrine at the extreme 
end, to our room. It was a small one, with 
bare floor — a single bed, one chair, and a 



132 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

table with a wash-bowl and pitcher on top, the 
former about as deep as a soup plate, and the 
pitcher minus water and handle ; but enough 
of the former was dripping from our clothes 
to equalize conditions. We found it impossi- 
ble to turn the lock of the door, so placed what 
furniture the room contained against it, feeling 
sure that the ' Blessed Mother ' in the shrine 
outside would keep us from all harm. We 
left lighted our two long candles — found the 
little bed sweet and clean, and soon forgot 
our tribulations. 

Arnbrieau, July 6th. — A clear morning, 
and our trust not misplaced. We are safe, 
and are refreshed by our night's rest. After 
being served with a bowl of black coffee and 
some blacker bread, for our breakfast, on a 
clean wooden table, we paid our little bill of 
five francs, and went our way rejoicing. At 
seven a. m. we were facing Geneva, rushing 
into and through the prettiest valley of coun- 
try we had ever seen. The Alps towered up 
on both sides of us, and in the valley were 
clusters of thatched and vine-covered cottages, 
with open doors, near which contented grand- 



LETTER V. 133 

mothers sat knitting and watching the children 
playing at their feet, while the younger women 
could be seen, not far away, minding the flock 
of geese or the herd of sheep. I am told there 
is much affection for each other exhibited in 
the simple homes of these peasants : often the 
entire families of several generations live under 
one roof in entire harmony and peace. These 
• ganders and geese ' are wonderfully wise, if 
what a travelling companion told me is true. 
She said that when a male child is born in 
these homes, the ganders form a line, and 
march around the house, but when the other 
sex is born they hide themselves. Poor gan- 
ders ! Probably jealous. 

At eleven a. m. we reached Geneva, and 
found our room at the Metropole ready for us. 
It is really an elegant one, spacious, and in 
the front of the house, with windows to the 
floor, by which we can sit and look out upon 
the Jardin du Lac and the beautiful blue 
waters of Lake Geneva, or Leman, often called. 
Our early breakfast not having been a very 
nourishing one, we decided to take another 
here before going out. A good one it was, 



134 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

and was quickly served. While enjoying it, 
a lady came to us, an American, and told us 
where to buy furs, where diamonds were the 
cheapest, and where we could find the best 
places to purchase watches — giving us her 
card at the same time. We were afterwards 
told that a number of American ladies make 
quite an income from commissions earned in 
this way. An open carriage was soon at hand, 
and from it we took our first look at Geneva. 
There is nothing very remarkable about the 
place, as a city. There are many hotels, and 
upon the quay are numerous elegant stores, 
mostly jewelry stores. In some of these we 
saw the beautiful enamelled watches, that are 
nowhere else so exquisitely made. Watches 
in almost everything saw we here — in neck- 
laces, bracelets, canes, and umbrellas, and at all 
prices. We went into one of the factories, and 
found that women do much of the fine work, 
a certain number working only on certain 
parts, and therefore constant practice makes 
them extremely dexterous in their specialty. 
They were well dressed, and looked intelli- 
gent and contented. 



LETTER V. 135 

Here the lake receives the waters of the 
Rhone, and about midway of the fine bridge 
which crosses it is Rousseau's island, on which 
stands a bronze statue of him. The upper 
streets of Geneva are very hilly, and the older 
part is quaint and odd in its buildings, like 
the old French towns. We saw the house 
Calvin lived in, and went into the church 
where he preached his hard logic, but we could 
shed no tears for his departure from this world, 
but might for the suffering Servetus, whom 
he caused to be burned for not believing as he 
did. It has always seemed to me that the stern, 
dogmatic Calvin showed a spirit of malice, as 
well as great uncharitableness, but of course, 
in those days very few lived who considered 
it right for one to have an opinion different 
from their leaders. What a huge bonfire there 
would be if freethinkers were thus treated in 
these days ! And was it not Calvin, also, who 
caused the Prince of Conde to be punished 
because he made himself agreeable to ladies, 
and thereby injured the interests of God? 
That reminds us of one club man who is 
always at his club when we want him for 



136 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

better purposes. Has he a little of the spirit 
of Calvin? 

This city is full of associations of intellectual 
lives w^hich bring fragrance of good deeds, 
the good works of Mine, de Stael, her Father 
Neckar, of Pestalozzi, Pere Gerand, and many 
others. 

In the afternoon we took a sail up the lake. 
The shores are closely dotted with hotels, fine 
residences, little villages, picturesque chalets, 
fronted with green, well-kept lawns, running to 
the water's edge, on the one side of the lake, 
w^hile the Alps rise high and dark on the 
other. We landed at Nyon, and climbed 
innumerable steps to see an old castle, from 
which we had charming outlooks. We sailed 
back to Geneva at the hour of sunset. All 
my life I had heard much of the sudden, strik- 
ing color changes that sunset produces on the 
summits of the Alps — and we have seen them 
in all their great beauty. At one instant, the 
terraces of mountain tops looked as if clothed 
in gold, and next as if painted crimson, — and 
as the sun sunk lower they were left huge 
dark piles, casting their shadows over us. On 



LETTER V. 137 

landing, we took a walk, and inspected the 
much-lieard-of monument of the Duke of 
Brunswick, for the erection of which he left 
plans and money. Did not admire it. It is 
very * giddy,' but the placing of it there 
poured funds into the treasury of the town. 
We looked at the pretty little American church 
with a tender interest, for one dear to us was 
married within its walls. In the evening we 
went to an open-air concert, and a very good 
one too, in the garden in front of our hotel. 

Called at an office to see about getting front 
seats on diligence, for our trip to Chamouni 
to-morrow. F. speaking French the better, 
did the talking, but was assured we could have 
no front seats for the next day, and we were 
about coming to the conclusion that we should 
have to take back ones, much to our disappoint- 
ment ; but it is here as almost everywhere else, 
if you are willing to take ^ back seats ' you may 
never take front ones, and this time I was not 
willing. Remembering the potency of the sil- 
ver key, I resorted to that as a forlorn hope, 
mixed in with my poor French, and succeeded 
in securing the desired places. On our way 



138 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

home, F. said she feared my earnestness and 
my not always grammatical French might 
place me in as bad a position as an American 
woman occupied, of whom she heard this story. 
She was rather proud of her somewhat limited 
knowledge of the French language, and fond 
of airing it. She went to secure places on a 
diligence for one of the Swiss mountain trips, 
and approaching the conductor, demanded — 

* Etes-vous les dilig^ence ? ' 

* Non, Madame, pardon ; Je suis le conduc- 
teur.' 

Lady — somewhat angry at the correction 
— said excitedly, ^ C'est tout de meme ; Je 
prenderai deux places dans votre interieur ?' 

July 9thf 1888. — Never a pleasanter morn- 
ing dawned for a ride on a diligence ! Ours 
was a new one, painted in bright colors, and 
we had the two seats between the driver and 
conductor. Our six strong horses wore strings 
of bells about their necks, and we started 
off right merrily. The road from Geneva to 
Chamouni is as familiar to tourists as the way 
from the Oxford to Boston Common, but all 
do not see it alike, and you have not seen it 



LETTER V. 139 

at all, so I know you will enjoy hearing of 
it, told to you in my way. The road over 
which we rolled was simply perfect, and the 
panorama in front of and about us, magnifi- 
cent. We went through the valley of the 
Arve, past well-cultivated farms, and little 
factories run by water turning the big wheels, 
past pretty chalets, nestled in green, stop- 
ping often to change horses and drivers, when 
the pretty Swiss children would gather about 
us and entreat us to buy their nosegays of 
wild flowers. There is something so pathetic 
in the faces of these little ones, that we could 
not find it in our hearts to disappoint them, so 
our decorations became as thick as those of a 
brigadier-general. 

But soon we leave these rural scenes, and 
strike into scenery so grand that I fear it is 
bayond description. Imagine us going over 
the road, with the river tumbling, foaming, 
along by its edge, the mountains towering up 
on each side of us, some rocky, others covered 
with green pines, with a sheet of mosses, lichens, 
and mountain blossoms at their bases, and 
frequent cascades of water rushing down pell- 



140 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

mell from tremendous heights, forming vast 
clouds of vapor long before reaching the val- 
ley below, and sparkling in the rays of the sun 
like millions of diamonds. One long, narrow 
waterfall, fringed with green foliage, like 
orange leaves, well merited its name of Hhe 
bridal veil,' so pure, lace-like, and fleecy did 
it look. ^ This will be a fine day to see Mt. 
Blanc,' said our conductor, and soon the 
mountain chain, with every shape of peak, 
including Mt. Blanc, shot up like giant com- 
manders above the regions of the clouds, in 
full view against the blue sky background, 
which blue was intensified by the snow-clad 
tips. After leaving the Baths of St. Gervais, 
a health resort approached through a beautiful 
avenue of trees, and where we dined, we find 
the road even better than at its beginning. 
These roads were built, and are taken care 
of, by the Government, and there is scarcely a 
stone or an uneven place on them. Every 
few miles we see crosses erected, some costly 
ones, but more of wood simply painted, with 
imao^es of the Saviour or of some saint on the 
pedestals or in glass cases. Over the doors or 



LETTER V. 141 

windows of most of the houses are statues 
or pictures of saints, for we are in Catholic 
Switzerland now. Here too we are assailed 
by beggars, and from one house the whole 
family, including the grandparents, all ragged 
and dirty, besieged us for alms. What a blot 
is this upon beautiful Switzerland. On this 
road, also we first saw victims of cretinism 
and goitre. We met one old beggar woman 
whose neck was so swollen that we could only 
see the upper part of her head protruding from 
the swollen mass of flesh beneath. We were 
told that the medical and. scientific men of the 
country have for years endeavored to ascer- 
tain the cause and a cure for this loathsome 
disease, but have so far been unsuccessful. 
Many attribute it to the use of snow water, 
but I should be more willing to think the use 
of no water caused it, for dirtier, more repul- 
sive-looking mendicants I never beheld. At 
about seven p. m. we reached the little village 
of Chamouni, and alighted at our hotel with- 
out a feeling of fatigue, so comfortable and 
full of delight had been our trip. 




LETTER VI. 

Chamouni is a small town at the foot of 
the mountains, surrounded in all directions by 
grand scenery, and the river Arve rushing 
through it, but our impressions of the place 
we will give you to-morrow. We find our hotel 
full of people from all over the world, and, 
alas, we see by the register that some friends 
from Boston have just left. Why could they 
not have stayed one day longer? We rush 
from table d'hote into the yard to see a party 
dismount from their mules after a day's excur- 
sion in the mountains, and a tired but jolly 
crowd they were. ^ This is what you have got 
to do to-morrow, so pick out your thorough- 
bred,' said F. I scanned the creatures, but 
took no stock in them ; but mules have a wise 
look. 



144 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

Chamouni, July 10th. — What a day this 
has been in my calendar, to be sure ! Thanks 
be to the good Lord that I am alive to-night to 
tell you about it. This early morning, before 
breakfast, we took a stroll about the town, 
which is composed greatly of hotels, as this is 
everybody's starting point for the mountain 
and glacier trips of this part of Switzerland. 
There are two or three churches here and some 
stores, and groups of small but comfortable- 
looking homes, but mules predominate — mules 
in the streets, mules in every yard, and mules 
on every corner ; in fact, the principal part of 
the population is mules and the principal part 
of industry mule riding, at least one would so 
judge from the general aspect. We met a 
party of gentlemen coming from Mt. Blanc, 
who had made a hazardous journey, and for 
whom we had heard some anxiety expressed 
by their friends at the hotel, but they are safe, 
and we imagine the young, rosy-cheeked 
English maiden will now leave the telescope, 
where she has stood for so much of the time 
since our arrival, looking anxiously toward the 
ice-capped giant, hoping to see ^ Albert.' 



LETTER VI. M5 

There is probably much satisfaction to scien- 
tists in the ascent of Mt. Blanc, but to the man 
ordinary one would not think it would pay, as 
the results are often quite serious, even if one 
does get through with whole limbs — the skin 
generally peels from one's face and the eyesight 
is often badly affected. 

We stepped into the church for a blessing 
and back to our hotel, the D'Angleterre, for 
breakfast, with an appetite ready to devour 
anything. The table is excellent, and such 
butter ! so sweet and fresh, that one eats an 
extra roll for the sake of the butter with it. 
Here we met some friends from America, who 
are to join us on our trip to the Mer de Glace. 
' But I do not wish to ride a mule ; can I not be 
carried in a chair ? ' ' No, no,' said the crowd, 
' here they come, mules and guides.' ' Come 
now, let us get started ; you may have the first 
choice,' said F. ' Six mules and three guides. 
And is that what you engaged ? I must have 
the whole attention of one guide.' I opened 
conversation thus with the oldest man, who 
seemed used to being questioned : ^ Which is 
the easiest trotter ?' ' Not much difference, all 



146 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

easy.' ' These saddles look hard/ said I. ' The 
softest in Chamouni.' I walked around one 
mule, and he, eying me, brayed in disapproval, 
but by this time the rest of the party had 
mounted the other five, and I was helped to the 
saddle of this sixth one, wondering how my 
one hundred and thirty pounds avoirdupois 
looked at mule-back elevation, not daring yet 
to think how a back not made of iron might 
stand the ordeal. After a good deal of merri- 
ment in getting started, out of the yard we 
filed, a gay party, two ladies and three gentle- 
men, all thinking it delightful but myself. 
For a while muley was very demure, and the 
fearless riders kindly gave to me the most 
experienced guide, so we led the string. The 
zigzag path as we ascended the mountain, how- 
ever, grew narrower and steeper, with now a big 
stone in the way, and next a slippery hole 
made by running water, and my beast gave me 
terrible shakings as if he would rather ' go it 
alone.' The young people in the rear were en- 
joying the scenery, and I could hear their gay 
voices and exclamations of delight, but T did 
not think it such a good time, for I had to give 



LETTER VI. 



147 



my entire attention to keeping on my saddle, 
such bumps into the air that mule did give me. 
My guide said he was young and playful, and 
there was no danger, which quite reassured 
me, notwithstanding he endeavored to whirl 
about very often, as if he had been stung, or 
had hit his crazy bone, or stepped on an elec- 
tric wire. F. cries out, ' Do not be fright- 
ened ; you will get used to it.' But when the 
creature suddenly jumped from the hand of 
the guide, a yard or two down the embankment, 
with the yawning precipice below, to eat a 
bunch of green grass he had spied, almost 
throwing the guide down, and I keeping on 
only by holding on to his neck with both arms 
for dear life, I concluded I would not wait to 
get used to it, and dismounted, feeling that 
^ shanks mare ' was a safer medium of locomo- 
tion than a Chamouni mule. The creature 
knew well that he had scored a victory, shook 
his long ears satisfactorily, winked considera- 
bly and wisely, and walked along contentedly. 
And so did I. We saw many Maid goats and 
one chamois, only that was in a little house and 
for the sight of it we had to pay. We met a 



148 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

number of pedestrians with their alpine sticks, 
and I gathered large bunches of lovely, bright- 
red flowers, called the mountain rose, somewhat 
like our rhododendron. 

It took us about three hours to reach the 
summit where the Mer de Glace, the great sea 
of ice, came in sight. The glacier extends for 
about twelve miles, and at this spot is about two 
miles wide, a solid mass of ice with enormous 
cracks and crevices, with tall ramparts, turrets, 
and towers of ice, all glistening in the sunshine 
like crystal, scintillating with gorgeous colors. 
From the hotel piazza, which hotel, a new one, 
stands on the plateau above the gorge, the 
effect is dazzlingly grand. At the hotel we 
were provided with strong alpine sticks, with 
socks and shoes, for walking on the ice, and 
with fresh guides commenced our journey 
across. It was difficult getting along some- 
times, but the beauty, strangeness, and fear- 
fulness of it all more than repaid us for the 
physical exertion. We were on the ice, with 
frozen mountains and spires all about us. 
Many of the columns and pinnacles and huge 
pieces of ice looked like crystal cathedrals and 



LETTER VI. 14:9 

palaces. In other places it appeared as if huge 
sea waves had been instantaneously frozen. A 
grotto had been naturally formed, into which 
four of us stepped. Deep crevasses, hundreds 
of feet deep, met us, some narrow enough to 
leap over, and others we passed over on little 
ice bridges our guides made for us. Midway 
we halted, looking about us, lost in wonder and 
amazement, when suddenly we were brought 
back to everyday life by a photographer, with 
his camera, suddenly appearing before us asking 
in plain English if we would have our pictures 
taken. Where the man came from we did not 
see, nor where he went we cared not, for we 
did not choose to be served up on ice that day. 
We crossed safely and recrossed at a different 
place, where the ice scenery varied as much as 
mountain scenery does from various outlooks, 
and we felt that never in our lives before had 
we seen anything so magnificent. As I was 
ascending the jagged points of the cliff to step 
on land, something fluttered like a feather 
before my eyes ; but I soon saw that it was a 
butterfly ; my guide caught it for me, and I 
had, as my trophy, a pure-white butterfly. My 



150 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

guide, an intelligent fellow, said he occasion- 
ally saw gray ones, but had never before seen 
a pure-white one there. A few yards from 
this sea .of ice vegetation flourishes, and almost 
at its very edge I found a cluster of little blos- 
soms resembling our ' forget-me-not,' only white 
instead of blue. They grew very close to- 
gether, and none others of their kind were to 
be seen, and they looked as though they real- 
ized that they had been left out in the cold, far 
from home, and tried to comfort each other. 

At the hotel we had a poor dinner, for which 
we paid a big price, but the magnificent views 
we here had from the house piazzas made up 
for it. Clouds begran to thicken and we made 
hasty preparations for our descent. I ex- 
changed mules, and the last one proved less 
frisky, but our going down the mountain 
seemed more hazardous than going up. Pretty 
Miss M., of Nashville, Tennessee, with her 
bright golden hair streaming over her blue 
cloth dress, led the van on my former steed, 
who, apparently feeling proud of his lighter 
burden, behaved very well, but we had not 
gone far when the rain poured as only it can 



LETTER VI. 151 

pour in these mountains. We were all pro- 
vided with umbrellas, but I had to use my 
hands to hold on to the pommel of my saddle, 
for my mule's hind feet were higher than his 
front ones, and I preferred getting wet to being 
dismounted. A boy had trotted up the moun- 
tain with us, and kept near us on our way down, 
so I gave him my umbrella, as it was impossible 
for me to use it, to protect himself. (More of 
that umbrella later.) As we neared the valley 
it ceased raining, the clouds broke, and for a 
little while the sun shone brightly and sank 
slowly in the west just as we entered our hotel 
yard, the young people exclaiming to those 
who came out to greet us, ^We have had 
a charming time,' but I, with every article of 
clothing thoroughly soaked, and my body feel- 
ing as if I had been under a thrashing machine, 
parted with mule society most willingly. 

Of our guides let me here say, in case you 
come this way some time, they were all careful, 
polite, and attentive to us, and from mine, 
although he could not speak one word of Eng- 
lish, I gained considerable information in regard 
to Chamouni guides. They are formed into a 



152 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

society and are employed in rotation, sometimes 
showing sufficient gallantry, however, to allow 
ladies travelling without gentlemen to choose 
their guides, if for any reason they have a 
preference. These men, before they can be 
accepted by the club, must be familiar with the 
mountains and the glaciers and must be proven 
to be honest and reliable. My guide was evi- 
dently a man of observation, and told me the 
guides all liked Americans, they seemed to 
enjoy everything so much. ' The American 
ladies look happy ; the English ladies are sad,' 
he said, probably meaning that they were not 
as enthusiastic, for the people of every country 
like to have its wonders appreciated. With 
aching limbs I retired early, and F. thought 
manipulation, with a little hot water and whis- 
key, might ward off a severe cold, and I sub- 
mitted to the treatment, while the others, not 
a bit used up, went off for an evening's ramble. 
I think they must have been brought up on 
mules. 

Wednesday, July 11th. — When we went 
to pay our bill this morning we found amongst 
the items charged, ' eight glasses of whiskey.* 



LETTER VI. 



153 



' What does this mean ? ' ' Means that Madame 
has had eight glasses of whiskey.' 'There is 
some mistake ; the only whiskey we have had 
was about half a gill, and probably not that, 
brought up to me in a wine-glass last night." 
' No, Madame, no mistake ; we are very par- 
ticular.' 'Do I look like a woman that has 
had eight glasses of whiskey ? Take that off 
my bill, that I may pay what I owe you,' said 
I, and I immediately counted out the amount, 
including one gill of whiskey. All of this in 
French, which I could not talk fast enough 
to show him the depth of my anger. F. was 
getting alarmed, and whispered, ' Don't mind ; 
do pay it.' ' No, I will not pay one sou of it, 
for we do not owe it,' and the clerk, seeing that 
1 was determined, accepted what I gave him 
and receipted the bill. Now if that man was 
honest, he thinks we have defrauded him ; if 
not honest, he will conclude American ladies 
are business-like at least. 

After this scene we were about ready to jog 
along, our carriage in the yard waiting for us, 
to which I went to deposit some wraps, when 
my boy of yesterday made his appearance, and 



154 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

said, ^I want my pay for carrying your um- 
brella.' I looked at him with the stare of a 
maniac ! ' Pay ! why, I loaned it to you, to 
keep you dry.' I was in no mood to be im- 
posed upon ; but the boy began to cry, so I 
gave him a penny or two, and wondered what 
would be the next demand. 

The carriage which was to take us to Mar- 
tigny was like a buggy with the top tipped 
back, and a comfortable seat for us two and a 
short seat front of us for our driver. Two 
good horses and a bright morning. Our 
tickets had been purchased for this trip ' half 
way by. mule,' but by losing something, I was 
enabled to exchange them. No more mule 
riding for me ! We were told by friends that 
if others were going over the same route, by 
joining forces and hiring a two-seated vehicle, 
expenses for all would be much less. We 
spoke of this at the hotel office the day before, 
twice, but were each time assured that there 
was no one else going, and consequently our 
day's trip was a costly one. At nine a. m. we 
bade our friends, who were going on to Ge- 
neva, adieu, and saw the last of Chamouni. 



LETTER VI. 155 

The Swiss are considered an honest people, 
but they either show great carelessness or we 
have several times been cheated. At the 
Baths of St. Gervais, upon paying for our 
dinner, they did not return to us enough 
change ; we both knew they did not, and yet 
the man who took the money declared they 
did, and as we had not time to contend the 
case, we let it go. To be sure, there is some 
dishonesty everywhere, and some honesty that 
is a little hard to understand. The whiskey 
case might have been of that class ; something 
like the bills of some American dressmakers, 
who, after charging for every possible thing 
that could be used in making a dress, modestly 
put at the end of the long list : ' Findings, one 
dollar.' I have never been able to find out the 
definition of that word ^findings.' 




LETTER VII. 

Marti GNY. 
Our ride of thirty miles has been delightful. 
There is no railroad, of course, from Cha- 
mouni to this place. We passed many pedes- 
trians of both sexes, with their bags and water- 
proofs strapped across their backs, following 
in a line like a row of ants, apparently having 
a jolly time seeing Switzerland on foot ; also 
passed parties on mules. The scenery was 
glorious all the way. We looked back to 
take our last view of Mt. Blanc and the Mt. 
Blanc range and the lovely valley below. Our 
road was good, but in some places so narrow, 
and the ravines so deep on the one side and 
the mountains so high on the other, that it 
gave us a little anxiety j but our driver was 



158 A BUNDLE OP LETTERS. 

very cautious, and soon inspired us with con- 
fidence. Up and down we went, constantly 
seeing new and wonderful views — deep gorges, 
waterfalls, and the green-clad mountains ; and 
at last, through a tunnel cut through a solid 
rocky point of the mountain that blocked the 
road, we came to Tete Noire, where we stopped 
to refresh man and beast. 

Upon going in to dinner we were surprised 
to see there two ladies whom we met at Cha- 
mouni the day before, and who were travelling 
alone like ourselves. They told us they left 
at eight o'clock, after being assured that no 
others at the hotel desired to come with them, 
as far as was known ; so they had a carriage to 
themselves as we did, when we should all have 
been glad to have made the trip together. 
Was that a mistake also? After dinner we 
continued our journey, with four other carriage 
loads in our train, which made the trip seem 
very social and jolly. We passed through a 
beautiful forest, and then into an opening 
past houses far apart, pasture lands, and 
fields of pretty wild flowers. Here we saw 
pansies growing wild in great profusion, and 



LETTER VII. 159 

the lovely pink, and crimson yarrow. In our 
descent of the Col de Forclag we had a fine 
view of the Rhone valley, and at about six 
p. M. reached Martigny. Switzerland is indeed 
mighty ; and its great mountains, its lakes and 
valleys, make us cry out, in truth, ' Great is 
Thy firmament, Lord, and wonderful the 
works of Thy hand ! ' Martigny is a small 
village in the valley, where we are to spend the 
night. 

Thursday, July 12th, 1888. — We can see, 
in the distance, St. Bernard covered with 
snow, and would like to see the celebrated 
hospice, the self-sacrificing brothers and their 
noble dogs, but shall not take the time this 
season, but hope to, some time. Of the two 
great gifts, memory and hope, I know not 
which gives us the most satisfaction. There 
is but little of interest at Martigny — a good 
place to rest ; and feeling entirely refreshed we 
left at nine a. m. for Interlaken in steam-cars, 
which seem quite a novelty to us now. I 
think I was rather glad to get out of the 
mountain region for a little while : one's eyes 
grow weary with the looking up and the look- 



160 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

ing down, and tlie mind tired in the appreci- 
ating of so much sublimity at once. Tho 
country we came over was charming; fields 
o£ wild flowers of every color looking as if 
arranged by an artistic hand, and the hillsides 
covered with vineyards. Our road, for a long 
distance, kept near Lake Geneva ; the v/ater 
looked as deeply blue as a sapphire, and the 
sail-boats and steamers passing each other made 
a pleasing scene. 

At Chiilon we stopped to see the ' Castle of 
Ghillon,' It is a picturesque old building, 
with turrets and towers, standing on a point 
of rock that extends out into the lake. Tli3 
ring of iron to which Bonnivard was chained 
is still there ; and the path which his feet wore 
in the stone floor, in the weary, solitary six 
years' march back and forth over those few 
stones, is plainly visible. 

' Chiilon ! thy prison is a holy place, 

And thy sad flour an altar, for 'twas trod, 

Until his ver}"- steps have left a trace 

Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod. 

By Bonnivard ! May none those marks efface ; 
For they appeal from tyranny to God.' 



LETTER VII. 161 

It would be almost impossible for one to 
keep from quoting Byron's lines here, for 
everything we see brings them to mind, and 
on one of the pillars is his name, cut by his 
own hand. To look at the dungeons and cells 
makes one's blood run cold, and even worse is 
the deep, deep hole down which prisoners, 
untried, were thrown to fall upon pointed iron 
stakes. And while these terrible horrors were 
being perpetrated below, above it all, Duke 
Victor Amadeus and his Duchess ate, slept, 
and enjoyed themselves. Could they have 
been human? We saw many implements of 
torture, which made our heads swim with pain 
even to look at them, and be told for what 
they had been used, and we gladly turned our 
backs upon it all and walked out into God's 
sunshine, thanking Him, as never before, that 
we live in an age when such things are kept 
only as ancient curiosities. This portion of 
' clear, placid Leman ' and the country around 
it bring forcibly to mind many portions of 
Childe Harold's pilgrimage. 

Our next stopping place was at Lausanne, 
r.nd at the station we met some Boston friends, 



162 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

seeing them just long enough for an affection- 
ate greeting and to say good-by, every one of 
us 

' All kind o' smily round the lips, 
An' teary round the lashes/ 

for home faces are sweet to look upon, and our 
own language sweet to hear, in this far-away 
land. Here we changed cars for Berne, and 
of all the queer-looking towns, this is the 
queerest. Having but a few hours here, we 
are inclined to give the most of it to the 
bears. The city's coat of arms is a bear, and 
pictures, carvings of, and stuffed bears meet 
one's gaze everywhere, on clocks, fountains, 
towers, houses, and public buildings; and at 
a restaurant where we called for ice cream 
Bruin's figure was served to us in chocolate. 
There is also a den containing about twenty 
live bears, who are sacredly cared for by the 
city government, and they walk about and 
climb poles with more dignity than common 
bears, as if fully realizing that they are ^ mon- 
archs of all they survey.' We were driven 
through the principal streets and thought the 
homes of the people looked very comfortable, 



LETTER VII. 163 

with the outside balconies at the windows, and 
the red-covered cushions on them, as if inviting 
travellers to stop and rest. It happened to be 
cheese market day ; and in the middle of a 
square were long tables covered with piles of 
cheese, of all shapes and colors, enough to 
provide the citizens of the whole world, for 
the rest of their lives, ' cheese for their 
doughnuts.' But the odor ! It was not to 
us ^ of Araby blest.' There is a great deal of 
beautiful carved woodwork here, and how we 
want to buy everything odd and pretty, but 
oh, those ' duties ' to come. We went into the 
cathedral, which is a handsome one, and walked 
on its terrace, from which we had a fine view 
of the river Aar and distant mountain peaks. 
We then hastened to the old clock tower, to 
be there at just the time to hear and see the 
curious old clock strike the hour of six. A 
cock steps out and flaps his wings, an ogre eats 
a child, and has his pockets full of children in 
reserve to be similarly disposed of, a troop of 
bears march across the tower, and a man 
strikes the number of the hour on a h'l^x bell 
v/ith a hammer. These, you understand, are 



164 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

all statues carved of wood, and move correctly 
every hour. A bearded man also turns an 
hourglass and counts the number of the hour 
by raising a sceptre and opening his mouth 
as if speaking. One needs to look very closely 
to see all the movements, and the whole is 
wonderfully ingenious, and it is indeed an ' old 
clock,' as it was built in the year 1191. 

After leaving Berne, we changed cars twice 
before reaching the lake. I cannot under- 
stand why the railroad officials of Switzerland 
do not arrange matters to dispense with so 
much changing from one car to another, and 
also to shorten the delays, unless they are 
desirous of accommodating the women they 
employ, in giving them ample time to finish 
whatever they may be doing ere they blow 
that horn, which sounded like a ' Swampscott 
fish horn,' and which at several stations has 
seemed to be the order for us to move. At one 
station I saw a woman come through a gate 
with a horn or trumpet, or whatever it may be 
called, and partly raise it to her mouth as if to 
sound the signal for us to start, but suddenly, 
seeing a dog scratching up the earth in her 



LETTER VII. 165 

garden, ran and beat the dog first, then returned 
and tooted loudly, and off we started. A short 
sail on Lake Thun, which seemed weird and 
lonely, as it was by this time cjuite da.k, an- 
other car ride, and we see the lights O'^ Int.ii- 
laken, which speak to us of rest, for we are 
weary. 

InterlaTcen, July 14^A. — This is cheerful. 
Everything at our hotel, the Victoria, looked 
delightfully pleasant to us this morning as we 
tripped down stairs as good as new. ' What a 
pretty front yard, and do see all of these huge 
hotels in a row ; do you suppose they are all 
full ? ' said F. Well, Interlaken does seem to 
have hotels enough to take in all the tourists 
of the world, but they are all well filled at this 
season. The shops are attractive, and the 
pretty girls in them, dressed in their native 
costumes, are very polite and seem peifcctly 
willing to show their wares without uro-ing one 
to buy. But the beautiful embroideries are 
temptation enough for one to spend money, 
without any words. We saw in every sho;; 
handkerchiefs more beautiful than in the last 
we entered, although we declared those there, 



166 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

when we looked at them, were the loveliest that 
could be made. And the exquisite embroidered 
soft white laces almost make one want to be a 
bride to wear them. Girls and women are 
sitting in the stores, on the steps, in their door 
yards, and in the parks, all busy embroidering. 
We have a good view of the Jungfrau from 
our hotel piazza. We have taken long walks 
in and about the town, and very pleasant ones. 
We wandered into a church and found that 
one half of the building was used by the 
Presbyterians and the other half by the Catho- 
lics. We were pleased to meet some friends 
from Boston here, who added much to the 
pleasure of our stay. 

July IQth. — F. has been with Mr. F., one 
of our home friends, over the Wengern Alp 
to Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen to see the 
glaciers and the ice-caves. I declined, not 
caring for another mule ride. They report 
having had a fine time, repaid fully by the 
sights they enjoyed, and rode horses instead of 
mules, — and horses do have some consideration 
for their riders. Evenings we have had ' hops' 
at our hotel and fine music, and after table 



LETTER VII. 



167 



d'hote are always entertained by the orehestrian 
and the bright-looking little wooden man that 
wields the baton. 

Lucerne, July 11th. — k short ride from 
Interlaken this morning early brought us 
to Lake Brienz, which we sailed across, stop- 
ping for a short time at Giessbach to see the 
falls, which are formed from numerous cascades. 
Their reputation is the greater part of them. 
We left the steamer at Brienz and took steam 
cars to travel over the Brunig Pass. Until 
this summer, travellers have been obliged to 
make this journey by carriage or mules. The 
new railroad is narrow, and the sides of the 
little cars are of glass, so that the scenery all 
about us can be easily seen. We crept cau- 
tiously, slowly along, up the zigzag road, higher 
and higher, through jagged rocks and under 
them, clasping each other's hands and almost 
holding our breath, so fearfully grand did it 
all seem. The lovely Meiringen valley below, 
lying peacefully dotted with pretty villages 
and protected by high mountains on each side, 
seemed very far from us, and the river running 
through its centre looked like jards of silver 



168 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

ribbon unfurled to beautify some one's bridal 
day. But when the descent is safely made we 
almost want to go back again, it was all so 
beautiful. The last two hours of our day's 
travel was on Lake Lucerne, the loveliest bit of 
water in all Europe. A tall, gaunt, masculine- 
looking German woman happened to sit near 
us on the boat, and seemed to look upon us as 
* curiosities,' and to feel it her duty on her 
native soil to give us some information. This 
woman had been all day at work in the moun- 
tains, but at what we could not understand. 
Coarse and repulsive-looking as she was, she 
had a good bit of the poetic temperament in 
her nature, and knew every mountain peak 
and bit of scenery in sight and the traditions 
connected with them. The peasant women of 
Switzerland, owing to their toilsome lives, wear 
a look of anxiety and hardness in their faces 
that a woman's face ought never to have. x\nd 
yet there is no country in the world, excepting 
our own, where women have done so much for 
the progression, education, and good of their 
sex. In Protestant Switzerland there is but 
little begging ; in Catholic Switzerland beggars 



LETTER YII. 169 

waylay you at every turn. It was nearly sun- 
down when we crossed the lake, and Mt. 
Pilatus showed off well and did not disappoint 
us. The old German woman assured us that 
Pontius Pilate fled there from Jerusalem, 
heart-broken, and ended his life by throwing 
himself into the lake : "^ See, right in that spot,' 
she said, ' he threw himself ! ' Then as if 
reflecting, added, ' But Pilate did what was — 
what he had to do.' All this she spoke in 
German, and I have given you the literal trans- 
lation. Who shall say that woman was not a 
philosopher ? Pointing in another direction she 
said, ^ That is where Kriss Kringle was born. 
Does he come down the chimneys in America ? 
It is well for children to know him.' And 
this woman of sentiment and feeling Vv'orked 
daily out of doors. The scenery from Lake 
Lucerne is indeed beautiful and is full of glori- 
ous associations, for it was about here that tlie 
struggle was made for the liberty and freedom 
of Switzerland and her people. The mountains 
all about us, the stately chateaux, the pretty 
chalets, old watch towers, castle ruins, and the 
green foliage about them, the beautiful lake, 



170 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

and the steamers going and coming, make a 
peaceful, restful scene. The sun sinks almost 
out of sight, and all at once, as a surprise, we 
turn, and are at the city of Lucerne. 




LETTER VIII. 



Lucerne, July l%th, 1888. 
In going to the breakfast-room this morn- 
ing I saw, in a pantry we passed, some real 
cucumbers, green and fresh looking, as if 
they had just been picked in a garden I am 
thinking of, not a hundred miles from Boston. 
My mouth fairly watered for a few crisp slices. 
I had a conversation with my table waiter 
about them, who thought it might be possible 
to get some for me. I waited patiently with 
refreshing anticipations, but when they came 
their crispness had departed : they were soaked 
in oil. I longed to go into that kitchen and 
teach the cook how to serve cucumbers. But 
making the most of the hard bread, which I 
very much dislike, and it is the same all over 



172 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

the Continent — crust an inch thick, and the 
passable beefsteak and poor coffee, we got 
through our morning meal. We soon forgot 
our disappointment at breakfast in the delight 
of getting letters. Oh how glad to read 
them, and no bad news. Now we can go out 
sight-seeing, stronger and happier than ever. 
Lucerne is beautifully situated on both 
banks of the river Reuss, with the lake in 
front, and has many attractions, I think. The 
lake, this clear morning, looked so luring that 
the first thing we enjoyed was a sail to Flu- 
ellen, where we took carriage for Altorf, the 
village made classic forever by the heroic deeds 
of William Tell. The spots of ground where 
his son was placed and where Tell stood when 
he shot the apple from the boy's head wore 
shown us. In our school days, Tell was ever 
one of our favorite patriots, and we fear we 
always felt glad of that hidden second arrow, 
which was to have shot the tyrant Gessler if 
the first had killed his boy. On our return to 
Lucerne we saw the old castle of Hapsburg, 
once the summer home of Wagner. The king 
of the sights of the town is, however, the 



LETTER VIII. 173 

Lion of Lucerne. This piece of sculpture is, 
as everybody knows, a monument to the brave 
Swiss guards of whom we thought so much 
about at Versailles. The beast is twenty-eight 
feet long, magnificent in proportions, and cut 
out in relief on the face of the natural rock. 
He is wounded by a spear, and dying, but 
making a desperate struggle, even in death, 
to protect the shield of France. There is a 
pathetic expression in the expiring creature's 
face that is almost human. Ivy and running 
vines cover the sides of much of the huge 
rock about him, and at its foot is a pond of 
clear water in which the whole is reflected. 
The lion was designed by Thorwaldsen, the 
noted Danish sculptor, who was born in Copen- 
hagen, and whose Reliefs of the Seasons, and 
Ins Day and Night, are familiar to you from 
the photographs. * We cannot let our eagle 
scream here, F.,' said I; ^Cogswell fountains 
do not equal this.' 

We went into the Glacier Garden and saw 
the bas-relief of Central Switzerland, modelled 
from nature by General PfyfPer one hundred 
and forty years ago ; and were then driven to 



174: A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

the old cathedral, where there is a fine organ 
handled by a noted organist every evening. It 
is quite the fashion for visitors in the place to 
flock there to hear the music after dinner ; but 
we, not liking the rooms given us at our hotel, 
' The Swan/ although undoubtedly they did 
for us the best they could, and as we could not 
get into the Schweizerhof at all, the best hotel 
in the place, have decided to leave this after- 
noon. Our last act of sight-seeing was the old 
covered bridge, in which there are over a hun- 
dred pictures, scenes of Switzerland's history 
and pictures of saints, although some of them 
did not look very saintly. There are four 
bridges across the river, — two modern, and 
the other two very ancient and curious. 

Went to Vitzman by boat, then took front 
seats on a platform car to ascend the Rigi. 
Only one car is sent up at a time, and that is 
driven by steam power. The railway seems 
to be the same as any narrow-gauge road, 
but between the outside rails are two other 
rails quite near each other, in which a cog- 
wheel, which is under the engine, runs or 
works. We ascend slowly, leaving the lake 



LETTER VIII. 175 

and the towns far below us, and beyond and 
above us are the mountain peaks. We go 
through a tunnel and across a deep yawning 
ravine on an iron bridge ; and the scenery is 
beautiful all around us, which we can fully 
enjoy at our ease, as there are no dangerous 
places and no frisky mules to distract one's 
attention. We pass many tourists, but the 
path must appear almost endless to them, for 
it seems to us, even at our speed, that the top 
of the mountain grows farther away. But at 
last we reach our hotel, the Rigi Kulm, above 
the clouds. Would we could always rise above 
them so delightfully ! It was very cold, so we 
put on all the wraps we had, and started out 
for views from the Rigi. Just imagine your- 
self on the very top of this high mountain, 
which juts up towards the heavens like a ^ pop- 
over' in a hot oven. In the valley below we 
can count eight lakes, and the many towns so 
far below us look like the little wooden villages 
made of blocks for children to play with. 
Looking beyond in all directions, we see moun- 
tains towering up to the sky — Rocky Pilatiis, 
the snow-clad range of the Bernese Alps, and 



176 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

the green Rigi group close about us. We see 
the rugged heights of the Silberhorn, the three 
pealj:s of the Wetterhorn, and, grandest of all, 
the Finsteraarhorn. What a personal interest 
we have in these peaks of Switzerland as soon 
as we know them. 

The mountain was covered with travellers, 
like ourselves, enjoying the views and antici- 
pating a gorgeous sunset, as there was scarcely 
a cloud to be seen. I sat on the grass near 
the edge of the mountain wondering at the 
extent of this magnificent panorama, when I 
felt a weight on my shoulder ; turning quickly 
a cow raised her head from the resting place 
she had chosen and looked at me in a way that 
said, * Why did you move ? ' A little later we 
met Mr. W., of New York, and his handsome 
German doctor, who added greatly to our plea- 
sure during the rest of our stay here. Seeing 
a boy with some freshly picked wild fiow^ers, 
and an edelweiss among them, I asked where 
he found it, and wandered off in the direction 
indicated, anxious to pick for myself one of 
these blossoms. We had bought them fresh, we 
had bought them dried, and the semblance of 



LEriiiR VIII. 177 

them ill all sorts of ornaments, but not one had 
I seen growing. I clambered down the steep 
and rocky path, and was rewarded after a 
long search by finding two of these flowers 
which the Swiss love so well, and I victoriously 
exhibited them to my friends as I met them 
coming in search of me. We grouped our- 
selves on a high platform, built on the summit, 
which was already well crowded, to see the sun 
go down. But why do we get up here ? we 
were high enough before. Because it is the 
thing to do, and here is glass of every color to 
look through. But I only wish to see it all in 
its natural colors. How the wind blows, and 
how cold it is ! There goes the Doctor's hat. 
No use to try to recover it ; it is dashing on to 
see where the sun goes to. Put this wrap over 
your head, Doctor. 

Look, look ! The great ball of fire was 
sinking to the edge of the horizon, which was 
streaked gorgeously with crimson and gold. 
Golden tints fell far and near, upon valley, 
lakes, and mountains, and the white robes of 
the snow-clad peaks were changed to rose. All 
voices were hushed, for a spectacle so sublime 



178 



A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 



awakened in every one emotions too deep for 
words. Lower and lower, until only a great 
gold shield remained, and soon all light was 
gone, and the shadows covered us. * These 
are Thy v,^orks also, God, for Thou didst 
make the heavens and the earth.' 

Stiff with cold, we hurried to our hotel, 
whose lights twinkled cheerfully for us in the 
distance, and a good dinner, with warm drinks, 
soon thawed us into a comfortable condition. 
After dinner we tried to find a room heated 
sufficiently for us to remain in and not freeze, 
but there was none. Large, handsome parlors 
and corridors, but all as cold as ice-caves. 
The proprietors of this house make a great 
mistake in not providing fires for the comfort 
of their guests ; and for the very lack of this 
necessity to one's health, we decided to leave 
as early as possible in the morning. After a 
brisk promenade through the hall with our 
friends, we bade them good-night, promising 
to rise at the sound of the alpine horn and 
meet them in the parlor, to go out and see the 
rising of the sun, which they assured us would 
be far more wonderful than its setting. ^Now 



LETTER VIII. 179 

you will be sure to be on hand/ said Mr. W. 
' I would not have you miss it for anything. 
I have a fur coat here which I will unpack to 
put about you ; you will have to rise at three 
o'clock, you know.' ' yes, I will surely be 
ready. We have come far to see the sun rise 
on the Rigi, and I must not miss it. Good- 
night,' and off we go to our room at the very 
top of the house. Just hear the wind roar. 

Our chamber was cold, our chambermaid 
colder, and upon our asking her for more bed 
covering she undoubtedly reached the freezing 
point somewhere, for she disappeared and we 
saw her not again. After prolonged and vigo- 
rous ringings of our bell, a petrified-looking 
boy appeared, but he manifested some signs 
of life as our money touched his palm, and we 
succeeded in coaxing him to bring us an extri 
feather bed. That bed was warm, and as our 
own was cold and clammy, I felt pretty sure the 
boy gave us his own bed. But I was grateful, 
and he was satisfied with the bargain. 

' Get up, and dress as soon as you can,' said 
F., holding a ghostly candle in front of my 
face. ' Up ! why I had just got to sleep.' 



180 



A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 



' The alpine horn has sounded, and you must see 
the sun rise.' 'No, I am just beginning to get 
warm ; what does it rise at this unheard-of time 
for ? ' ' There, Mr. W. is calling us outside our 
door ; do come, hurry,' ' No ! ' The horn tooted 
most unmusically. I was too tired and sleepy, 
with a bad cold thrown in, to care whether the 
sun ever rose or not. I had had too hard work 
to get a comfortable resting place, to have no 
benefit from it, so off F. went, and I knew no 
more until seven o'clock, when she exasperat- 
ingly informed me of what a delightful time 
they had, that the sun setting was not to be 
compared in glory to its rising, that it was a 
wonderful revelation, and that I had persistently 
refused to enjoy it. dear ! why will people 
always tell you that the sights you do not see 
are those the best worth seeing. 

Thursday, July 19^/i, 1888. — Although we 
ordered our breakfast last night, it was not 
ready for us when we went to the dining- 
room. ' Very sorry, some mistake,' said the 
waiter ; but that did not give us our breakfast, 
and it was nearly time for the car to leave. 
We choked down some cold bread and half- 



lettp:r VI n. 181 

made coffee, and rushed, meeting a waiter 
just bringing our hot rolls and chops, which 
we had paid for when we settled our bill the 
night before. I took out a clean napkin from 
my bag, and took from him our breakfast, 
wrapped it in my napkin, and said good-morn- 
ing to the half-dazed man, who ejaculated just 
one word, which sounded like ' whew.' Our 
friends were at the car to see us off, and tried 
to exchange their tickets for some that would 
take them our route, but could not, so good- 
bys were said, and off we pushed to descend 
the Eigi. We have been unusually fortunate 
in having such perfect weather for this moun- 
tain trip. This morning is lovely. We move 
cautiously down a road, on the opposite side 
from the one we went up, so all views are new 
to us. We soon reached Lake Zug. Our car 
conductor gracefully saluted us as we left his 
care to take the boat. These Swiss conductors 
have a pretty custom of always saluting each 
other when they meet, also. 

We crossed the lake to the city of Zug. 
Had two hours to wait there, so walked about 
the queer little town. Wandered into a church 



182 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

where were several good pictures. On our way 
back to the station we stepped into a neat- 
looking wayside inn and called for a bottle of 
wine to go with our Rigi spoils for a lunch- 
eon. The proprietress and her fair daughter 
seemed much interested in us. We spread 
out our luncheon on a clean tablecloth, were 
served with delicious butter and honey, and 
enjoyed it at our leisure. With the curiosity 
of the sex, these women wondered who and 
what we were. Our dress was strange to them, 
and our language stranger. We told them we 
were from America, and were travelling to see 
their country. ' Wo ist der Herr,' asked the 
woman. 'We have none,' we answered. ' Mein 
Gott ! ' said she. We hear no more French 
spoken now ; all German. 

Our next stopping place was Zurich, where 
we had a good table d'hote dinner, and then 
pushed on to Schaifhausen, where we alight 
for the Falls of the Rhine, and ride in a car- 
riage about two miles to our hotel, ' The 
Schweizerhoff.' This house, with all its ap- 
pointments, is the best we have yet seen in all 
Europe. It is situated in the midst of beauti- 



LETTER VIII. 183 

ful grounds, on the bank of the Rhine, with 
the falls in full sight. Our room was not only 
comfortable, but approached elegance, and the 
long windows opened on to a veranda where 
stood two large, soft easy-chairs, as if waiting 
to welcome us, and give us the best pictures 
of the country about. Making a hasty toilette, 
we went down stairs and out on to the piazza, 
where sat at their ease a distinguished-appear- 
ing company to see the falls, which our guide- 
book had told us were the largest in Europe. 

In front of us, at the foot of the garden, ran 
the river, and a little to the right was a small 
rapid, apparently about as high as the fall of 
water that I used to see running a saw-mill on 
the East Taunton road, but not for an instant did 
we suppose that those were ^ the falls.' ' Will 
you please tell me where the Falls of the Rhine 
are?' I asked a lady near me. The woman 
looked dazed, and turned toward me to see if I 
was blind, but politely answered, * Why, there 
they are ! ' Impulsively, with a disgusted tone, 
I exclaimed, so disappointed was I, ' Those the 
Rhine Falls ! Well, just think of Niagara.' 
*Sh — sh,' said F., ^you are forever waving 



184 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

the stars and stripes.' If the house and place 
had not given us so much pleasure we should 
have felt our time wasted in coming here, but 
these exceed our expectations. The cuisine 
was simply perfect, and at table we were 
served by pretty, rosy-cheeked Swiss maids, 
dressed in white skirts, full-sleeved white 
waists and black velvet bodices, and looking 
as fresh and sweet as pinks. They moved, 
as if one person, to the sound of a bell, doing 
entirely away with long waits between courses, 
and every dish brought to us was most deli- 
cious. 

Fi^iday, July 20th. — We had our break- 
fast served on the broad piazza, fronting the 
Rhine, by our pleasant Swiss girl this morning, 
and the fragrance from the sweet flowers about 
us brought memories of the orange groves in 
Florida where we stood only a few months ago. 
Time and steam do wonders. Hoping to con- 
sider the falls a less disappointment on a closer 
approach to them, we decided to go to their 
very centre in a boat. About in the middle of 
them stands a rock, on which has been erected 
a pavilion, and to which boatmen are ready to 



LETTER VIII. 185 

take passengers at all times. We reached the 
landing safely, through currents and whirlpools, 
and the rapids themselves did appear of much 
greater magnitude on closer proximity, but I 
doubt their being the largest in Europe. The 
town of Schaffhausen is very ancient, with its 
queer old houses, gateways, and walls. On the 
old bell of the cathedral is an inscription, 
which translated means, '^ I call the living : I 
mourn the dead : I break the thunder ; ' which 
it is said, prompted Schiller to write the ex- 
quisite verses of ' The Song of the Bell.' 

Saturday, July 21s^. — Yes, the Schweizer- 
hoff is a haven of rest, and had we time, we 
should like to tarry longer. We are close 
to Germany now, and must see something of 
it, but I fear the majestic scenery of Switz- 
erland has spoiled us for any scenery of less 
beauty. The proprietors of these Swiss hotels 
have a custom of giving to each departing lady 
guest a bouquet. Mine this morning was un- 
usually beautiful, and when I said to the giver, 
^ We have really been charmed with your house,' 
a pretty picture of the place was added to the 
first offering. To the omnibus in which we rode 



186 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

to the station from the hotel, was harnessed, 
as our leader, an immense cream-colored bull, 
a handsome creature, truly huge in his pro- 
portions. I doubt if I shall admire Paul Potter's 
as much. 

In our car we had as our only travelling com- 
panions two priests, with their long, flowing 
gowns and big hats. They continually prayed 
and crossed themselves for a while, and we 
feared that they did not realize that we were 
also two human beings and Christians, so en- 
tirely did they ignore us. But after a time they 
looked up, and we found an occasion to make 
a remark to them, which opened the way for 
a conversation, although a limited one, as 
they could not understand one word of Eng- 
lish, and we stumbled much in German, but they 
were very bright, and looked over with us our 
German conversation book, and we made quite 
a merry party. Our route was through and 
over the Black Forest mountains, said to be the 
most picturesque of all mountains. We passed 
through numerous tunnels, some very long ones, 
and in utter darkness, as they did not light the 
cars at all; giving one a good chance to think 



LETTER VIII. 187 

of all the terrible accidents one ever heard of, 
and making one feel all the time as if some- 
thing- dreadful might happen. I never did like 
to be in the dark, unless as a tired child with 
my mother's arms close about me. When not 
underground, which seemed but little of the 
time, the scenery we saw was bold and memora- 
ble. The whole region of this Black Forest is 
full of traditional stories, and we stretched our 
necks as we turned precipitous corners, hoping 
to get a glimpse of the '■ Black Huntsman ' 
dashing down the dizzy heights back of us or in 
the green valleys below. We saw two castles, 
and a huge monastery, ' built on a rock ' on a 
high elevation. And now, being in the mood, 
I think I will tell you of something we saw 
later, — a cavern which is called * The Noble 
Lady's Grave,' and this is the story which 
shows why so named, as told to us, or at least 
the main points : ' The husband of the lady 
left her alone in their home in the Black 
Forest, with only her attendants for society, 
and, of course, she being of noble birth, could 
not ^ chum ' much with her servants. He left 
her thus to join the Crusades. She pleaded 



188 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

with all a loving wife's earnestness for him to 
remain with her, but without avail. It looks 
as if the knight cared more for glory than 
for his better half, but may be, let us be chari- 
table, ^ he had business she could not under- 
stand,' or perhaps ' he had to meet a man,' as 
many of the self-sacrificing husbands of our 
own time are obliged to do, greatly to their 
own discomfort, but ^ duty is duty, you know.' 
At any rate he tore himself away from her 
clinging arms, in spite of tears and entreaties, 
undoubtedly hoping to cover himself with glory 
in the holy city. Perhaps he had wearied of 
the gloom, dismalness, and monotony of life 
in the Black Forest, and ^ needed a change.' 
His wife, of course, had more resources for 
pleasure; she could do the mending of the 
family, tell the cook what to have for dinner, 
and go to church and give thanks for so brave 
a husband, and offer prayers for his welfare. 
The lonely, noble lady did all of these things 
most faithfully for a while, but they soon 
ceased to be entertaining, and life itself grew 
wearisome. There was no mail to be expected 
in those days, no letters to answer, no pro- 



LETTER VIII. 189 

gressive euchre parties, no Browning clubs, 
no sewing circles, no amateur theatricals, and 
not even a neighbor to talk about, and no 
one to talk about the neighbors with. Poor 
forlorn woman ! Worn and weary with the 
watching and the waiting, ^ He cometh not,' 
she said. Her crusader most selfishly tarried 
too long. But one fine day somebody's else 
crusader came along, and just as the noble 
lady was packing her ^ Saratoga ' to fly with 
him to the lands where loneliness and the 
' blues ' were unknown, her own lawful crusa- 
der appeared, killed her would-be rescuer, and 
shut the poor, out-of -patience wife up in this 
cave in the hillside, which was her prison liv- 
ing and her grave when dead. 

After the descent of the Black Forest rano-e 
was made, we struck into pretty, green valleys, 
where women, young girls, and children were 
making hay, ~ Gretchens and Maud Miillers. 
Oxen and cows were used instead of horses, 
and I saw two women harnessed into a hay-cart, 
which was loaded with hay, and a man riding 
comfortably on top, smoking his pipe. I 
would have liked to have seen him fall off, but 
I was told that men at home, in this part of the 



190 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

world, are so few, that the women give them 
the easy places, and work for them, and coddle 
and pet them to their hearts' content. The 
large majority of the men are away at the bar- 
racks. The homes of the working people, just 
here, look as if intended to illustrate a revised edi- 
tion of ^ the happy family.' Human beings, both 
sexes, of several generations, judging from the 
very old looking women and the few old men, 
and the little babies we see, with horses, cattle, 
sheep, pigs, and hens, all live under one outside 
upper roof, having perhaps the choice of apart- 
ments inside. The door-yards look neat, but 
without exception, every house has somewhere 
near the never-to-be-missed fertilizer pile, often 
higher than the house, and generally the 
bigger the house the bigger the pile. Stocks 
up, they sell ; stocks down, they buy. Financial 
excitements, you see, are necessary even here. 
The houses are never painted, and the roofs 
are covered with straw. At one station where we 
changed cars we saw a group of Alsatian women 
with the genuine Alsatian bows on their heads 
instead of bonnets. The bows were made of some 
black material, and I think must have measured 
fully one yard from one end to the other. 




LETTER IX. 

Hotel de la Ville de Paris, Strassburg. 

My dear : Strassburg is a larger city 

than I had expected to see, and some parts 
of it are very fine. The university buildings 
are handsome, as are many others. The great 
cathedral, however, is the one particular object 
of interest. We first took a look at the 
exterior, and many looks, for its beauties are 
manifold. The carvings, statues, and bas- 
reliefs are magnificent, as are also the towers, 
turrets, and the spire. The west front, so 
called, has a rose window, and on each side of 
this window is a large square tower. The 
entire fagade is most exquisitely sculptured. 
^ But oh ! ' said F., ^ do look up at the spire ; 
does it seem possible any object so elaborate 
and graceful could be made of stone ? ' The 



192 A BUNDLE OP LETTERS. 

height of this spire is nearly five hundred feet. 
It looks so light and airy, so like a wonderfidly 
executed piece of filagree work, towering 
towards the clouds, that I fear you cannot 
imagine its beauty from a hasty description. It 
has been said to look like ^lace work,' and 
the building itself, so fine are its carvings and 
sculptures, said * to look as if it were placed 
behind a rich, open, flower-like screen, or in a 
case of open-work stone,' and these comparisons 
will, I think, convey to you a little idea of its 
general appearance, and you will be spared 
the lameness of neck that I suffered, from 
the long stretch in looking up. Even in this 
land of art, architecture, music, sculpture, and 
poetry, we are often reminded that flesh, mus- 
cle, and nerves need some consideration. This 
church is indeed a rare poem, an epic of the 
first water, and its author, the architect, was 
Erwin von Steinbach, whose tomb is in one of 
the chapels. F., anxious to do the most daring 
things, decided to ascend the spire by way of 
the spiral staircase ; I declined. She ascended 
and descended with a level head, and declared 
she would not have missed the sights, for any- 



LETTER IX. 193 

thing, of the closer view of the stone-work, and 
of the panoramic picture from the elevation. 
Of the interior I shall not tell you much, but 
its rich, elegant carvings, its beautiful stained- 
glass windows, its clusters of pillars, its ornately 
sculptured pulpit, were objects of our great 
enthusiasm and delight. 

Of the wonderful clock I will tell you a lit- 
tle. This astronomical clock is in the south 
transept, and tells not only the time of the 
day but indicates every event connected with 
astronomical phenomena, like the changes oi 
the moon, the seasons, the church calendar, 
and so forth. A child strikes the quarter of 
the hour, a youth the half hour, a young 
man the third quarter, and an aged man, 
tottering slowly, comes and touches the bell 
with his staff, and passes on, soon followed by 
the figure of Death, who strikes the full hour 
with a human bone ; and just then, the figures 
representing the twelve Apostles march in 
front of a statue of the Saviour, who bends to 
give each one his blessing, and a cock crows 
loudly thrice, while another figure — Time — 
turns an hour-glass, for running of ^he sand 



194 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

to indicate the next hour. It is all extremely 
ingenious and interesting. The clock has 
been partly reconstructed, as it is said the 
original, made in 1M8, was partially destroyed 
by the maker. The legend runs that the 
genius who invented and made this wonderful 
structure of mechanism for Strassburg was 
urged to make one for another town. The 
Strassburgers becoming jealous, sent for the 
clock-maker, and requested him to give his 
promise that he would never make another; 
but this he refused to do, which so angered 
them they gave an order to have the poor 
man's eyes put out. Hearing of this terrible 
crime which was soon to be inflicted upon 
him, he offered to make a few necessary repairs 
on the clock before losing his eyesight. As 
soon as he had done this, his eyes were forever 
destroyed, but at the same moment a crash 
from the clock was heard — weights, bells, and 
figures fell to the ground, for the man had de- 
stroyed instead of repairing his work. The 
clock just escaped being again destroyed at 
the time of the bombardment by the Germans 
in 1870. The cathedral was greatly damaged. 



LETTER IX, 195 

but has been well repaired. One cannot won- 
der that the French feel bitterly toward the 
Germans for taking from them, with Alsace, 
this city so rich in its churches, but such is war. 
And long ago, when this same place was a 
free German town, Louis XVI. captured it for 
France, and now Germany claims it again. 
French and German seem to be about equally 
spoken here. 

We met E. W. in the street to-day, and a 
pleasant surprise was her face. In this strange 
country, mere acquaintances seem like dear 
friends, and dear friends dearer than ever 
before. I wish I could hear your voice to-day, 
but I know you are with us in thought, and 
glad that these days are so filled with bright- 
ness for us, but we must not forget that they 
cannot always last ; we are so apt to, just as in 
summer we forget that flowers so soon wither ; 
but the fragrance of their fallen leaves remains 
with us long, as will the sweet memories of 
these gliding hours. 

Holland Hotel, Baden Baden, July 23d, 
1888.— At four p. M. we reached here from 
Strassburg. Our hotel is one of the best, and 



196 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. - 

after settling our baggage in our spacious, 
handsomely furnished room, we went out to 
reconnoitre. The town is lovely, — beautiful 
streets, buildings, shops, and grand old shade 
trees everywhere, and just now the place is 
crowded with people, driving, walking, flirting, 
and sauntering through the streets, stores, and 
gardens, bareheaded. This reminds me more 
of Saratoga in the summer season than any 
place I have before seen, although there is not 
the display of dress here, or the taste dis- 
played in what dress there is, that we see in 
our American watering-places. In fact, so far, 
I have had to come to the conclusion that 
European ladies show very little good judg- 
ment and no style in dress, with the one excep- 
tion of the Parisians, The Duchess of Baden, 
who is the daughter of the good old Emperor 
William, lives very near our hotel, and other 
members of the royal family of Germany are 
here, but are, of course, all in deep mourning 
for the dearly loved and much-lamented late 
Emperor Frederick. 

After an excellent dinner we went to the 
^ Conversation Haus,' a large, fine building in 



LETTER IX. 197 

the midst of beautiful grounds, where every- 
body goes evenings to hear the fine music 
and see the people. What else they go for I 
cannot positively say, but am told that there 
is still some gambhng carried on somewhere 
within the walls of this building ; but we saw 
only its elegant drawing-rooms, ball and recep- 
tion rooms, rich in appearance as pictures and 
gilt, velvet, and silk furnishings could make 
them. If any gambling is done here, or about 
here, in these days it is done secretly, for when 
the German Government awakened to the fact 
that accomplished scoundrels from all over the 
world met here to carry on their nefarious 
practice, it suppressed all gambling, greatly to 
the credit of the Government, for by so doing 
thousands of dollars that were left here annu- 
ally were spent in some other country than 
Germany. When this was done it was feared 
that the prosperity of Baden was over, but it 
did not prove so. The place is too lovely to be 
neglected by travellers, and now, many of the 
wealthier and most respected Europeans spend 
a portion of the summer here. There are over 
twenty large hotels and more small ones, and 
they are now all well filled. 



198 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

July 24:th. — This morning we visited the 
' Trink Halle/ an elegant building, which is 
decorated with frescoes illustrating many of 
the old German legends of the Black Forest. 
People flock here mornings to drink the waters 
as they do at Congress Spring at Saratoga. 
Crowds of people were present drinking the 
vile stuff as if they enjoyed it, hut I found it 
the least palatable of any mineral water I ever 
tasted. The Fraiilein who, at her leisure, at 
last waited upon us, acted as if it were a great 
condescension on her part to allow us to taste 
the horrid liquid, but she did not hesitate to 
take our money. I observed the same spirit in 
all of the female employees in the town with 
whom we had anything to do. They did not 
seem to wish us to see anything or to buy any- 
thing ; and in one store where we looked at a 
garment, after hearing the price, I remarked 
to my companion that it would not cost much 
less, if any, than at home, if we paid duties, 
and the girl, understanding English, said, ' You 
could probably buy it elsewhere for less,' and 
continued the reading of a book she held in 
her hand. With such indifferent clerks I 



LETTER IX. 199 

should not suppose sales would be very large ; 
but all merchandise was dear at Baden except- 
ing the little things found at the booths out 
of doors and in the two rows of stores leading 
to the Conversation Haus. These were very 
attractive, and everything for sale in them, 
from magnificent diamonds and gems of all 
kinds, exquisite engravings and photographs, 
down to buttons and hair pins, and the gentle- 
manly proprietors and clerks were very polite. 

We next went to the Friedrichsbad, the 
finest bathing establishment in the whole world. 
It is built of red and white stone, and is artis- 
tically decorated with carvings. But the at- 
tendants there, the women, were as disagree- 
able as the sex were at the Trink Halle ; but as 
they were remarkably good looking, they may 
have been placed there for ornament instead of 
use, and the mistake our own in expecting them 
to give us any information. We did not see 
the private baths, as it was not the hour to 
show them, but we did succeed in seeing the 
magnificent round, white, marble-lined swim- 
ming bath by waylaying the only man we saw 
in the establishment and asking him to show 
it to us. 



200 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

We took a carriage to visit tlie ^Alt Schloss/ 
or old castle, now a ruin and a very picturesque 
one, and then to the ^ Neue Schloss,' where the 
Grand Duke of Baden lives a part of the time. 
This is a home fit for the gods — a grand 
castle, on an eminence overlooking the town 
and a beautiful country round about it. 
It is surrounded by magnificent grounds, and 
contains many valuable paintings and a gallery 
of antiques. You remember the Duke's wife is 
the daughter of old Emperor William, and now, 
since the Emperor Frederick's death, she is 
his only child living. As none of the royal 
family were in the castle all of the apartments 
were shown us, all attractive and rich in fur- 
nishings and finishings, with lovely views of 
the beautiful valley of Baden Baden from the 
windows. We next followed our guide down, 
down, into the dungeons below, made in the 
rock on which the castle stands. All around us 
were instruments of torture, and near us a deep 
excavation where condemned persons were for- 
merly thrown alive, and from which no cry for 
help could be heard. We were glad to turn 
our backs upon these places of old-time cruelty 



LETTER IX. 



201 



and try to forget the barbarity of old mar- 
graves in admiration of the late loved emperors 
of the country, William and Frederick, both 
of whom have recently gone to their reward. 

These German duchies are small, very small, 
kingdoms. The duchy of Baden is not as large 
as our State of Massachusetts, but the Grand 
Duke lives in a kingly manner. He not only 
has his palaces here, but has one at Carlsruhe, 
a short distance from here, one in Freiburg, 
one in Heidelberg, and three or four others, 
and each one must require an immense revenue 
to be cared for as they are. Now, just think 
of the taxes the people must have levied upon 
them to keep up all this grandeur. Suppos- 
ing we had to, by being more largely taxed, 
pay our governors a sum sufficient to live in 
such luxury, I think we should soon rebel, 
and if we did not, I should fear our honest 
Puritan blood had run out. From the 'Neue 
Schloss' we visited the pretty Greek church, 
which is a gem, and finished our drive along 
the Lichtenthal Allee, the beautiful avenue, 
shaded by magnificent trees and filled with 
carriages of every description in which were 



202 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

seated lovely women, "with gay dresses and 
sparkling gems. Promenaders from all parts of 
the world walking up and down, bands of music 
playing, and bright and brilliant is the scene. 
Yes, Baden is delightful, and we have been 
cared for with much thoughtfulness at our 
hotel and recommend it to all who come this 
way. 

Willhad Sprmgs, Geimumy, July 25th, 
1888. — I do not imagine that you ever heard 
of this place, but it is worth hearing about. 
It is a small watering-place, with natural 
springs, hot and cold, these springs being con- 
sidered by many the very fountains to dip in 
to ensure the everlasting duration of youth, 
strength, and beauty. And here we are visit- 
ing our own relatives, who have come from 
Dresden to tarry a while for the benefit of the 
waters. How glad we were to see them all — 
our own kith and kin ! Cousin E. and his 
pretty little ' foreign ' niece were at the station 
to meet us, and you may well believe our 
tongues did run fast for a while. Aunt M. is 
an encyclopedia of a most charming edition, 
and has delighted us with stories of her experi- 



LETTER IX. 203 

ences in living and travelling on this continent 
and with her cordiality towards us. Hundreds 
of people are here, as the country about is 
attractive, and then, too, the sick, lame, deaf, 
and blind come to be made whole. * Let us 
bathe in these wonderful waters,' said F. 
Here, as at Baden, there is a fine building in 
which the baths are fitted up, with all the con- 
veniences, and the water brought into them 
from the natural springs. What a furnace 
there must be here in the bowels of good 
mother earth, and how well regulated to keep 
this water and send it to her children of just 
the right temperature for a bath. I could not 
possibly think of any irregularity of my body 
that needed doctoring, but was advised that 
when ' in Rome I should do as the Romans do,' 
and was told also by one of the pleasant assis- 
tants (very different from the class at Baden) 
that many American ladies had derange- 
ments of the liver, and I undoubtedly would 
have some time, being an American, and these 
baths were a sure preventive as well as a sure 
cure. I had never thought much about my 
liver, as it had never called for special attention. 



204 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

but feeling that .lere was the grand opportunity 
for ' taking time by the forelock,' plunged in. 
Result : stayed a day longer at Willbad than 
was my intention. They make very good 
gruel at Willbad ! I had no right to the heal- 
ing properties of Willbad waters, for there was 
nothing wrong with my constitution. 'The 
waters took their own way of revenging impo- 
sition. 

July 26th, 1888. — Have been in the house 
all day. This evening half of our household 
went to the opera and the rest of us listened to 
some fine music in the Park. The band was 
a splendid one, and the programme contained 
choice selections, such as we should have to pay 
a dollar or two to hear at home. How full of 
music these Germans are, and how soulfully 
they execute ! We have just decided not to 
go with E. to Bayreuth to the Wagner Festi- 
val, but to take the time to see more of this 
country, for this we cannot have at home, 
but we can have Wagner's music, and, better 
still, our own Symphony and Gericke. We 
lingered in the drawing-room of our relatives 
late, hating to say ^good-night,' for the morn- 



LETTER IX. 205 

ing will be the beginning of a longer parting. 
And when shall we all meet again. Adieus 
must be said, and when we thanked our friends 
for the pleasant time with them they said, '• But 
we have done so little ! ' Ah ! life is made up 
of little things ; loving words, smiles, and 
kindly acts win the heart always. 

Hotel de VEuroi^e, HeideJherg, Germany, 
Jidij 21 til, 1888. — On our way here from Will- 
bad we stopped for a few hours at Carlsruhe, 
which is one of the residences of the Court of 
Baden and is the capital of the grand duchy of 
Baden. We are getting tired of palaces, so, in- 
stead of visiting the very magnificent one at 
Carlsruhe, spent what time we had in the palace 
gardens and in the botanical garden, the oran- 
gery, and the hothouses. The flowers are about 
the same as we have at similar places at home, 
with a few plants and blossoms strangers to us. 
We reached Heidelberg at five p. m. and 
were considered distinguished arrivals, I am 
sure, for a carpet was spread awaiting our foot- 
steps from the carriage to the hotel door and 
several gentlemen in dress suits stood in a line 
with folded arms and bowed very low to us as 



20^ 



A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 



we passed along. Now, this was delightful ! 
They never do that at Parker's or Young's 
when we go there. This hotel is fine, standing 
in the centre of a pretty garden. We have a 
luxurious room and on the first floor. We are 
getting to like the single beds, one apiece, that 
we have everywhere over here very much, for 
if one does feel like taking the ^ spoon fashion ' 
position, there is no one with coequal rights 
near to object. Nor are the employees as atten- 
tive at the home hotels. Here we no sooner 
get settled in our rooms than the polite portier 
appears, takes our names and residence ; no 
going to the office to register here, and the 
letters U. S. A. act like magic, for are not the 
United States of America overrun with million- 
aires, and so many of them resort to travel pur- 
posely to get rid of a portion of their trouble- 
some, superfluous incomes. ^ Would we like a 
glass of wine brought to our room? Is our 
room satisfactory ? Perhaps we would like a 
special maid during our stay, which he hopes 
will be long. When it suits us to allow him, 
it will give him much pleasure to tell us about 
the city and what to visit and the pleasantest 



LETTER IX. 207 

way to see all.' Well, really, these portiers are 
invaluable, and although there may be some 
grasping ones, who impose upon strangers, we 
have found nearly all of great assistance and 
apparently well satisfied with what we have 
given them, which has never been more than 
we felt that they deserved for service rendered. 
We took a drive about the city, which is a 
long, narrow place sandwiched in between the 
river Neckar and the hills, on the highest one 
of which stands the ruins of the old castle. 
We were driven through a long avenue, with 
pretty trees on each side and some residences, 
but more stores, and the sidewalks filled with 
people. This street is called the Anlage ; and 
is the principal boulevard of the city. We saw 
the ' Helig Geist Kirche ' — Church of the Holy 
Ghost, into which the people of Heidelberg were 
driven, crowded in like animals, so closely that 
they could not move, by the French army in 
the time of Louis XIV., and left there to suffer, 
until the steeple took fire as the town was 
being burned. This old structure has had 
many critical changes in its history, and is now 
divided by a thick wall, on one side of which 



208 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

the Roman Catholics worship, and on the other 
the Protestants. Our driver was a talker, and 
told us much we understood, and more that we 
did not, of the places of interest we passed. 
* Now show us the university buildings,' we 
said, and he soon halted in front of an old, plas- 
tered or stuccoed structure, that resembled bar- 
racks more than a renowned seat of learning, 
and was a great disappointment to us. A drive 
over an old stone bridge, from the farther end 
of which we had a charminof view of the 
castle perched on the mountain side, overhang- 
ing the town, with its towers, battlements and 
arches, a regal ruin in truth, and back to our 
hotel, ended our first sight of Heidelberg. 

We had scarcely entered our room when a 
band of musicians stationed themselves directly 
under our window and struck up the ^ Wedding 
March ' from Lohengrin, and it was exquisitely 
played too, and on fine instruments. We 
came to the conclusion that we were supposed 
to be brides on our wedding tour, and had 
commenced disciplining our ^ better halves ' by 
leaving them at home, as we find it is a source 
of great wonder to the Europeans, and espe- 



LETTER IX. 209 

cially to the English and the Germans, that the 
American wives travel about so much without 
their husbands. One lovely German lady, in 
Baden, in speaking on this subject, said to me, 
' And what do these husbands left alone do ? ' 
* Do ? ' I answered, ' why, they not only attend 
to their own business matters, but they run the 
house, take care of the children, and write daily 
love letters to their absent wives, and love them 
better than ever, if possible, when they reach 
home again. You must believe,' I said, * that 
American husbands are the best in the world, 
and that with us, in all grades of life, wives are 
treated with tenderness and consideration, and 
as equals.' She looked a little incredulous, and 
I could not wonder when I thought of the 
pitiable sights of her country, that are before 
us daily, of women, bronze faced, half dressed, 
working in the fields, digging, hoeing, pushing 
the plough ; in the towns breaking stone, saw- 
ing wood, and bending beneath heavy loads of 
many kinds, carried on head or back, while 
their husbands take their ease, at the barracks, 
perhaps, and when at home take the money 
earned by their wives. One of the worst 



210 



A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 



features, too, of this condition of things is 
that the women do not rebel ; if their husbands 
take them into the gardens on Sunday, and 
drink beer with them, often paid for with 
the Httle earnings of the overworked wives, 
they are satisfied. Poor things, they have 
never known anything better. Amongst the 
poor of Germany, matrimony was not com- 
menced right. I think the military laws of 
the country are to blame greatly for the degra- 
dation of the women of the so-called lower 
classes. A man who is or has been in the 
army considers it beneath him to do honest 
labor, but not beneath him to allow his wife to 
do it. 

July 28th, 1888. — Life is a glorious gift, 
and a morning so bright and lovely as this 
makes one thankful ! Immediately after break- 
fast we went to the castle, of which we have 
had views from a distance, and of which all 
our lives we have heard so much. There it 
stood, massive and grand, the most magnifi- 
cent architectural ruin in the world. It is a 
ruin, but there is very much more of the 
original building left than of Kenilworth, that 



LETTER IX. 211 

has walls only left ; this has halls, rooms, and 
chapels, some of which have been restored, 
There is a moat around it, after crossing which 
we passed under and through a picturesque 
gateway, from which ivy and wild vines were 
waving, and entered the courtyard. The fagade 
is of three stories, and on it are allegorical 
figures, statues, medallions, and stone carvings. 
Tradition gives Michael Angelo as the architect 
of this fagade. Ball-rooms and banquet-halls 
were shown to us, some containing paintings in 
a fairly good state of preservation, which seems 
more remarkable when we consider that they 
have been there since long before America was 
discovered. Of the woman who acted as our 
guide we asked many questions, for one feels 
so much more interest in the history of a place 
when on the spots talked of. She was well 
informed, and told us what we had often read, 
that the castle was built in the thirteenth cen- 
tury, and that for several hundred years the 
Counts Palatine lived here in royal magnifi- 
cence, and that at one period eighteen hundred 
persons formed the family, or the Court, of 
the Elector. No wonder they needed fireplaces 



212 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

large enough to roast oxen whole. The build- 
ing was several times partly destroyed by 
armies, but was rendered useless to live in by 
lightning, at last. 

What jolly times the high in power and the 
old sprigs of royalty in those days meant 
to have ! One would have surely a dull imag- 
ination, or no imagination at all, who could here 
wander from room to room and not see with 
the mind's eye the revellings of the long ago. 
The big tun in the cellar is hogshead-shaped, 
and really will hold forty-nine thousand gallons, 
and has been twelve times filled with the best 
wines. Can you comprehend such an amount, 
and a receptacle huge enough to contain it? 
The ' Elizabethan Bau ' still shows that Fred- 
erick V. brought his bride, Elizabeth of Eng- 
land, to a princely home. But the silence and 
the decay of these ' banquet halls deserted ' 
remind us forcibly of the brevity of the power 
and glory of this life, and should be a lesson to 
us to prepare for the life to come, which only 
is lasting. The wonderful beauty of the castle 
itself, the romantic situation, and the exquisite 
landscape views from its rich stone terrace, 



LETTER IX. 213 

will be choice pictures in our memories for 
many a day. 

There are but few attractive shops in 
Heidelberg J plenty of bologna sausages and 
pretzels ; portraits and photographs of the 
two dead emperors everywhere, and many of 
the new Emperor William. ' The king is dead. 
Long live the king.' The city seems full of 
soldiers, all with black crape on their arms, 
and the citizens — men, women, and children — 
wear it also. Everything shows to us that we 
are indeed in Germany. 

In our walks and drives in the town we have 
looked for the university students, and we 
have seen them — plenty of them, with faces 
cut and scarred, court-plastered and bandaged. 
What an abominable custom is this : to allow 
these naturally fine looking young men to 
make each other so hideous and repulsive in 
appearance for the rest of their lives. The 
American students here have nothing whatever 
to do with this disgraceful custom, and yet the 
Germans know well they are no cowards. A 
student from New York gave evidence of his 
willingness to risk his life, in a really noble act, 



214 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

by jumping into the River Neckar and saving 
the life of a child who had fallen from the 
bridge here, a short time ago. These German 
students are formed into five sections, or corps, 
and the members of each corps wear caps alike, 
so that it may be known by all who see them 
to which corps they belong. The colors are 
white, yellow, red, blue, and green, and the 
members of one corps never allow themselves 
to be in the least friendly with members of 
any other corps, for they may have to haggle 
them with swords within the next twenty-four 
hours. These corps students, we are told, 
belong to the most aristocratic families of Ger- 
many, and yet at the slightest provocation, and 
indeed with no provocation at all, they fight 
each other like wild cats. Very recently one 
of the red caps, by mistake, took a book belong- 
ing to a white cap, was challenged for so doing, 
and was slashed with his opponent's sword 
unmercifully. I tell you this, as told to us, to 
show you how little it takes to cause a duel. 
If the members of the corps do not challenge 
each other, the president of a corps challenges 
for them — fight they must, or be forever 



LETTER IX. 215 

branded as cowards, and to show the slightest 
sign of being afraid to do so would make life 
in Heidelberg unbearable for them forever after. 
In the duel, no matter how seriously one 
is hurt — his ear may be cut off, or his nose 
split — he must not wince or show a sign of 
the * white feather.' Now is not this disgust- 
ing ? Brave they say it makes them ! Thank 
God, our young men show their bravery in 
nobler directions ! Seeing students everywhere 
in our strolls about town, I wondered when 
they studied, and asked many questions in 
regard to the rules of the university. It 
seems rules are few. Heidelberg University 
gives to all who choose to hear, at a very small 
charge, lectures on all the sciences and arts, 
delivered by men of great wisdom ; so if 
students wish to learn, they have great oppor- 
tunities. If they are indifferent, everybody 
else is in regard to them ; they can do as they 
please. We heard a great deal of their capa- 
city for, and indulgence in, beer drinking, but 
saw little of it. 

In the old castle there is a banquet-room 
where they congregate for their revels often. 



216 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

This grand old ruin now belongs to the Duke 
of Baden. 

We have made some purchases of leather 
goods here — pocket-books, card-cases, and so 
forth, extremely pretty and cheap — and they 
all bear the impress of the castle ; so you shall 
see many views of it when we get home. At 
our hotel to-day a young American girl heard 
of the sudden death of her father, and refused 
to be comforted. Poor dear child, how our 
hearts went out in sympathy for her. And 
how hard it is for us all, amid the sorrows 
and griefs of this life, to keep always God's 
love for us in view. 




LETTER X. 

Mayence, Gebmany, Juhj 29th, 1888. 
A FINE city is this, a large one too, with 
broad, handsome streets. Our first visit was, 
as usual, to the cathedral. Service was o-oino* 
on, and this being some anniversary day, the 
church was profusely decorated with fresh 
plants and flowers. The entire chancel was 
filled with ferns and white blossoms. I sat 
a while Hstening to the service, but the only 
portion of it I was capable of appreciating was 
the fine tone of the organ as it sent out its 
waves of sweetness over me. When I arose to 
go I could not find F., nor could I find the 
way out. A handsome old German immedi- 
ately comprehended my situation, and gallantly 
escorted me to the door, and upon leaving me 



218 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

bowed nearly to the ground. The German gen- 
tlemen are very polite ; and when we were at 
Strassburg, at our first table d'hote dinner there, 
we were the only ladies at the table, and there 
were ten gentlemen. We were the first to rise 
to leave, when, to our surprise and embarrass- 
ment, every gentleman arose and bowed. We 
of course recognized the courtesy by bowing 
also. In this Mayence cathedral we saw the 
monument to Gen. Lahmberg, who was killed 
at the siege of Mainz, and wondered at the 
ridiculousness of this costly piece of marble, 
which is like this : a figure representing 
Death is pushing the much-bewigged general 
into a sarcophagus, which appears altogether 
too small for him. Some of the statues and 
monuments, however, were very beautiful and 
appropriate ; one of Frauenlob, the ' champion 
of women,' exceptionally so. His bier was car- 
ried to the grave by eight beautiful and noble 
women. 

Like the rest of the German cities, this one 
seems full of soldiers. At the barracks we saw 
crowds of them, and in the streets saw several 
regiments marching, fine-looking specimens of 



LETTER X. 219 

mankind, and moving as if one man. I am 
told that in this one town there are more 
soldiers than in our whole army. That may 
be so, but I am thankful that our men devote 
their lives to better uses than the everlasting 
preparing for war ! Think of the progress of 
our comparatively new country. Think of the 
condition of our working people ! Think of 
the multitude of invaluable inventions Amer- 
ican brains have given to the world ! And 
when war has to come, that good may come 
from it, American men are not far behind, but 
they do not spend much time in ^ playing sol- 
dier.' True it is that the military spirit per- 
vades, fills, the whole of Germany in all ways 
and in all directions. At all of the railway sta- 
tions it greets and surrounds us. Every man in 
Germany has served a number of years in the 
army. They all stand in a military attitude, 
and walk with a military step. The railroad 
officials and employees have all been soldiers. 
The rank of their present positions is indicated 
by their special uniforms. The captain of the 
station wears a showy costume of blue trousers 
with a red side-stripe, a frock coat, double- 



220 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

breasted, a gilt belt, and plenty of large gilt 
buttons, and a red cap always, witb gilt trim- 
mings. The guards are also dressed in uni- 
form, but wear blue caps. When the passen- 
gers alight, these guards bow and salute, 
whether to do honor to the arrivals, or whether 
the salutes were for each other only, I cannot 
say, but will say it is a pretty custom, and 
much superior to the hurry-scurry, jostle-about 
manner of the depot employees in our own 
cities. 

The railroad stations in Germany are very 
much finer than our own. The interiors of 
the buildings are neat, with comfortable 
furnishings, fine restaurants, and dress-coated 
waiters quick and ready to serve. The station- 
houses are surrounded with well-cared-for 
grounds, containing flowers, fountains often, 
gravelled walks, and comfortable seats, so that 
waiting for trains never becomes tedious. 
Think of all this, you who wait at some of 
our country stations ! And, better than all, 
every man is courteous and polite, never in 
too much of a hurry to answer questions and 
give information. To the captain at the sta- 



LETTER X. 221 

tion here we are particularly indebted for 
kindness and grateful to him for his assistance, 
and especially for rendering all as if it were 
his greatest pleasure. In a drive about the 
city we visited the museum. Saw many quaint 
old buildings, watch-towers, statues, the Elec- 
tor's palace, and a variety of other fine build- 
ings. 

Grand Hotel du RUn, Wiesbaden, Ger- 
many, July 30th, 1888. — I believe Wies- 
baden is more attractive than Baden. At any 
rate, nothing could have charmed me more 
than the appearance of this town — the name 
of which means ' Meadow bath ' — in the lovely 
drive we have just had through its pretty 
streets, bordered with fine trees and magnifi- 
cent residences. Hotels are crowded, as we are 
here in the season for fashionable recreation 
and rest, and perhaps I may add, fashionable 
dissipation. People bathe in and drink the 
unsavory waters, and think they are made as 
good as new. The springs are a curiosity, and 
as the water bubbles up to the surface it emits 
clouds of vapor, and sends out an odor sugges- 
tive of having washed out Hades. "We were 



222 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

fortunate in meeting, in our drive, Louise, 
Princess of Nassau, in a very ordinary-looking 
turnout, and not prepossessing-looking herself, 
but our driver informed us that she is chari- 
table^and well-beloved by all. We, later, vis- 
ited the palace of the Duke of Nassau. There 
is a pretty English church here, and a very 
beautiful Greek chapel, built by one of the 
Nassau dukes in memory of his Russian wife. 
A figure of the sleeping Duchess, in white 
marble, is lovely. These Greek chapels have 
always a gilded dome. The natural beauties 
of Wiesbaden are numerous and unusual. It 
is said Kaiser William loved the place. 

This evening we went to the Cursaal, a 
handsome edifice, in which are ball-rooms, con- 
cert rooms, and so forth. There are beautiful 
grounds, beautifully laid out, around the build- 
ing, with parterres of flowers, miniature lakes, 
fountains, rustic arbors and seats, and every- 
thing to make the place attractive. The Cur- 
saal, the gardens, and the colonnades were all 
brilliantly illuminated, and a fine band playing 
in front of the piazza on which we sat. The 
seats and gardens were thronged with people, 



LETTER X. 223 

— sitting or walking about, chatting, drinking 
wine or beer, listening to the fine music, and 
having a good time generally. Before the 
suppression of gambling in 1872, it was ji«re 
carried on to about as great an extent as at 
Baden. While sitting taking in the brilliant 
scene, a lady sitting next me, who could speak 
a little English, addressed me. It was quite 
evident that her tongue must move constantly 
in some language. She was ^ cute ' and discern- 
ing, and after looking us well over, ventured 
to ask, as if know she must, '^ American or 
English ? ' ' American,' I replied. ^ I thought 
so ; and you never saw a sight like this before, 
did you?' Many of the intelligent people 
over here seem to think that there is nothing 
ornamental or beautiful in America, and it 
gives me great pleasure to undeceive and sur- 
prise them. Many seem to have an idea that 
we are as crude as savages. 

These watering-places have some advantages 
over our own Saratoga and the Springs of Vir- 
ginia, in the way of natural scenery, drives, and 
foliage, but the hotels at this place do not 
equal our own, the equipages are far less ele- 



224 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

gant, and one can see more handsome women 
and more tasteful costumes in one day at New- 
port than in a whole season here. This hotel 
we have not liked as well as the one in which 
we stayed at Baden. Our meals have been 
served in a sort of rustic arbor on a large scale, 
gorgeously gotten up, with vines, evergreens, 
running water, and flowers ; but I must say I 
had rather eat in the house, where there are no 
suggestions of bugs or worms ; but the Ger- 
mans love to eat and drink out of doors. My 
candle is growing short, therefore I must make 
this letter so, with loving thoughts of you all. 
Good-night. 

Tuesday, July 31s^, 1888. — The sun shone 
brightly in answer to our prayers this morn- 
ing, and we are thankful, for we did want a 
clear sky for our canopy while on the Rhine. 
At seven a. m. we left our hotel, and were 
driven a distance of three miles, over a fine 
road, to the river, where we found a boat ready 
for us. The steamers that ply on the Rhine 
look very different from our own craft. They 
are long, narrow, and low. We made our way 
on board, with hands full of maps and descrip- 



LETTER X. 225 

tive books, with the rest of the crowd, picked 
up our stools as we went along, and seated our- 
selves for a day's trip on the Rhine, filled with 
^ unspeakable emotions ' and a poor breakfast. 

At first we see but little of interest, — small 
villages, gardens, vineyards, and inns, near 
the water, and excursionists sitting on their 
porticos eating and drinking. Occasionally a 
cross or a statue on the hillside varies the 
scene. We are disappointed in the vineyards : 
the vines run up on sticks, and look like 
stunted pole-bean vines growing, and our 
expectations of graceful green-clothed arches 
and arbors vanish. ^ How muddy the water 
looks, too ! ' said I, ^ and when or where do 
we get to the delightful part of the Rhine ? ' 
A young German gentleman sat near us, who 
evidently did not like that question, as if it 
could be for once thought that any part of the 
romantic river could be anything but beautiful. 
I will tell you more of this gentleman later. 
At Bingen we made our first stop, and thought, 
as everybody does, of Mrs. Norton's poem. 
And I thought of the little boy I so earnestly 
once trained to recite her touching lines : — 



226 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

' O friend, I fear the lightest heart 
Makes sometimes heaviest mourning.' 

From childhood we have read of the Rhine 
and its romantic legends, and now to us it 
seems as if every spot must be inhabited by- 
princes and princesses, dragons, warriors, 
knights and syrens. The tower, called the 
Mouse Tower, which is in the middle of the 
river, was built in order to collect taxes from 
every boat that passed. The legend runs that 
an archbishop, at the time of a famine, took 
what grain there was from the poor, for his 
own wants. The starving throng begged him 
for bread, and he said to them, ' You shall have 
it ; go into that empty barn and I will give you 
warm bread ! ' The people rushed into the 
barn, when he closed the doors, and set it on 
fire, and when they all cried out in terror he 
coolly said, ^ Listen to the pipings of the mice.' 
From the ashes of the people armies of mice 
came to devour him ; he rushed to the tower 
for safety; but the mice, undaunted, fol- 
lowed him, and ate his flesh to the bone, and 
his skeleton was found in the Rhine. You 
will recall now these words of the poem — 



LETTER X. 227 

* They whetted their teeth against the stones, 
And then they picked the bishop's bones.' 

Fragments of poetry come to one's mind 
constantly here, for nearly every spot has been 
sung of by some one.' 

Near by is the great ruin of the Castle 
Ehrenfels, where the Archbishop of Mayence, 
or Mainz, as the Germans say, used to flee for 
safety in times of agitation. Opposite is the 
Castle of Rheinstein (Rhine Stone), which has 
been restored, and is owned and often occu- 
pied by the royal family of Germany, and 
looks indeed very inviting. The legend con- 
nected with this castle is a pretty tale, because 
the end gives Gerda, the lovely daughter of 
Count Siegfried, to Kuno, the man she loved, 
notwithstanding the treachery of his bachelor 
cousin Kurt, who endeavored to win her for 
himself, but as a meet punishment fell from 
his horse while following her and was killed. 
Kuno inherited his estates, and he, with Gerda, 
ever after ' lived in peace.' 

We saw the Siebenjungfrauen, ^ Seven Vir- 
gins,' now seven cold rocks, once beautiful 
maidens. The Lurlei, a river nymph, turned 



228 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

them into stone for flirting too much with the 
susceptible youth of the Rhine. Near by are 
the huge rocks of the Lurlei, where dwelt the 
syren, whose sweet voice lured all who heard 
it, and whose greatest delight was to charm 
these admirers on to their own destruction. It 
is said that even now, at the uncanny hour of 
midnight, the phantom of a boat can be seen, 
with the shadowy figure of a man with out- 
stretched arms standing in the centre, gazing 
toward the cliff, where he had once seen and 
been entranced by the lovely maid and her 
sweet voice. 

" To the Ehine, to the Rhine, go not to the Rhine, 
My son, I counsel thee well : 
Por there life is too sweet and too fine, 

And every breath is a spell. 
The Nixie calls to thee out of the flood ; 
And if thou her smiles shouldst see, 
And the Lorelei, with her beautiful lips, 
Then 'tis all over with thee ; 
For bewitched and delighted 

Yet seized with fear, 
Thy home is forgotten. 

And mourners weep here." 

I become so absorbed in all these old 
traditions, that I feel like telling you the 



LETTER X. 229 

stories as if they were new, but you know them 
all, and I must stop or weary you, for you are 
in practical Boston, and I on this historic, 
romantic stream. Near us, on the boat, sat a 
distinguished-looking party of Germans, one of 
whom was the young gentleman I previously 
alluded to, and who had watched us, we felt, 
with considerable interest, for the citizens of 
one nation are always interested in travellers 
from far-off lands, taking notes of their own. 
Hearing me ask of F. a question in regard to 
one of the old ruins, which information she 
was unable to give me, he kindly volunteered 
the desired explanation, apologizing at the 
same time for addressing us. He was every 
inch a gentleman, and spoke English a little. 
His knowledge of everything in the vicinity, 
his kind attentions, and the use of his superior 
glasses, added greatly to the pleasure of our 
trip. I think he looked at my companion, but 
he talked with me, and was charming. ^ Have 
you reached " the delightful part of the Rhine"?' 
he asked, and I felt that I had. The only really 
beautiful portion is from Bingen to Bonn. It 
is between these cities that the river turns and 



230 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

winds from one mountain side to the other, on 
whose heights stand the picturesque old ruins 
— castles, convents, and crags. Of course the 
Drachenfels, or Dragon's Rock, with the cas- 
tle ruins, brought to us many memories of the 
^ Niebelungen Lay,' for it was here, on this 
romantic ground, that young Siegfried showed 
his wonderful strength, which has been told 
and sung of ever since. If only he had dipped 
his entire body in the dragon's blood, and not 
left the one spot exposed ! But, ah me ! I fear 
we all have the one vulnerable spot somewhere, 
for we are all human ! In and near this vicin- 
ity the finest grapes grow, and the vineyards 
are extensive and receive constant care. 

We made a short stop at Bonn, long enough 
to see the fine statue of Beethoven, who was 
born here, and who was descended from a 
family of wonderful musicians. Saw the uni- 
versity buildings also, where a young gal- 
lant, once ours, studied, and then we pushed 
on down the river, the banks now flat and of 
little interest, until Cologne came in sight. 

Yes, we have greatly enjoyed the Rhine, 
but taking it entire, I am a little disappointed, 



LETTER X. 231 

and as these are honest letters, telling you of 
sights just as I am impressed by them, I must 
say, that with the exception of that portion of 
the river I have spoken of to you, which is 
bordered by the mountains, castle-tipped, I 
think our own Hudson, with its lovely banks 
and its shadowy Catskills, the more beautiful. 
I am thinking now of the time, one year ago, 
when I sat on the deck of the Mary Powell 
running up past the grand palisades and dear, 
lovely, old West Point. Well, I shall be 
homesick if I dwell upon that trip. Our 
attentive German escort, whose card has told 
us that he is the son of Baron von H., and a 
student at Bonn, now taking his vacation, re- 
quested my consent to accompany us to our 
hotel, as he was to stop at the same one, hop- 
ing to be able to be of service to us, which 
very kind offer we declined, and stepped into 
a droschky, which soon safely landed us at the 
Hotel Disch. 




LETTER XI. 

Cologne. 

Our room was all ready for us, and it was a 
fine one, and a rocking-chair in it, as sure as 
we are here, the first one seen since leaving 
Paris. How home-like ! Letters, too ! the best 
welcome of all. One from you, dear, who 
have proved by services and self-sacrifices that 
' love ' is more than a word ; and two from 
dear friends whose rare friendship has known 
no change. How eagerly we read them ! 
How thankful to know you are all well ! Oh 
how far away in body we feel from you to- 
night ! 

A rap at the door ! A note handed me ! 
What is this ? Credentials, and a letter form- 
ally introducing our young fellow-traveller of 



234 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

our trip down the Rhine. He was well known 
by our hotel proprietor. Well, he has worked 
rapidly since landing to try to assure us more 
earnestly that he is the gentleman he seemed, 
and of which I was perfectly positive without 
his having taken all this trouble. He sends us 
some fresh, sweet roses, and asks if he may 
sit with us at table d'hote. A little resting in 
our room, a little lingering at the window, 
from which we have a fine view, and our first, 
of the great cathedral, and down to dinner we 
go, Miss F. not forgetting to wear her share of 
the lovely jacqueminots. Our friend was wait- 
ing for us, and looked handsomer than ever in 
his fine dress-suit. We were all hungry, and 
did wish a little more speed could be used in 
serving table d'hote dinners. If one is sight- 
seeing, and desires the time for something 
besides waiting, these long-drawn-out affairs 
require the patience of a Job to sit to the end 
of them. 

After dining we walked out into one of the 
parks and heard excellent music, looked about 
the old town, guided by our German, who was 
familiar with every spot and who quite edu- 



LETTER XI. 235 

cated us upon Cologne and its history. Upon 
bidding him good-night, he said he should be 
happy to escort us about the next day, but 
previous arrangements compelled us to decline 
Avith the heartiest of thanks. He was disap- 
pointed, and the big, dreamy blue eyes rested 
upon the sun-browned girl with me, who looks 
thoroughly the tramp she is. They two con- 
verse in German, and so rapidly ! I must prac- 
tise German more ; I can hardly follow them. 
Why will people talk all languages but our 
own as if tongues were propelled by steam? 

Hotel Disch, Cologne, August 1st, 1888. — 
Thanks we offer for a good night's rest and 
for this lovely morning. Our bell rings, and 
I find at our door a maid with a basket of ex- 
quisite flowers tied with blue ribbon, colored, I 
am sure, with the reflection of a certain, pair 
of eyes. A card, with the donor's name, hop- 
ing the ladies are well. A pretty morning wel- 
come, surely ! We receive a call later, and bid 
God-speed to our German friend, who seems as 
reluctant to leave us as we are to have him go. 
But such is travelling : we meet as ships at sea, 
salute each other and then pass on. Moral of 



236 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

this little episode : If you wish in journeying 
about to have plenty of attention, take a 
young lady with you. 

Cologne, or Koln, is a large city, and in 
some of the streets where much of the per- 
fume is made the odor is very evident and 
much more welcome than the cheese scent of 
Berne or the garlic-impregnated air of some 
of the German towns. This is a fascinating 
old place, and the streets of shops, gay, bright, 
and progressive looking, and the old, narrow, 
crooked thoroughfares very odd, with their 
queer old buildings. The garrison here con- 
tains seven thousand soldiers : think of their 
seven thousand * ribs' at home digging pota- 
toes. There are many churches here, old 
towers and fountains, an archbishop's palace, 
and statues of the different German emperors, 
one fine one of Gen. Moltke and one of Bis- 
marck, all good specimens of careful work. 
Cologne water is for sale everywhere, stores of 
it, in bottles and flasks of every shape, on the 
street corners, in the corridors of hotels, and 
children rush up to you and take it out of 
their pockets, urging you to buy. Throughout 



LETTER XI. 237 

Germany I have seen the beautiful face of 
Queen Louise carved, chiselled, painted and 
photographed, but here, in an art store, I saw 
an engraving of the same sweet face, the love- 
liest of all. No wonder old Emperor William 
cherished her memory so sacredly, and forgot 
not the insults of Napoleon heaped upon his 
beloved, noble mother. We went, for a short 
time in each, to the Zoological and the Bo- 
tanical gardens. We thought we would see 
some of the sights of the town before going 
into the cathedral, but the huge pile was 
before us at every turn and we could wait no 
longer to see the crowning glory of the place. 
Cologne Cathedral ! Dear, of this great 
piece of Gothic architecture, with its majestic 
arches, columns, pillars, windows, and all else 
that helps make up its wonderful beauty, I 
have no words to tell you. It is perfect : 
nothing has equalled it. We wandered about, 
then seated ourselves, with never before in our 
lives so beautiful a perspective before us, and I 
was so overpowered with it all that I am not 
sure but I should still be sitting there if F. 
had not said, '^ Come, we must see the chapels.' 



238 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

There are seven of them, all filled with costly 
pictures and relics. In the treasury of the 
church there are gold and silver, diamonds, 
pearls, emeralds, and rubies enough to buy 
bread for all Germany. The beautiful churches 
of this country, the wonderful telling of sacred 
stories in their paintings, the speaking statues, 
which bring to us the ^ good tidings ' anew, 
the soothing, restful colors, are all great 
lessons and we can get much good from them. 
But the sacristies, filled with gold and silver in 
meaningless shapes, precious, costly gems im- 
bedded in old skulls repulsive to look upon, 
are indeed abominations. If all these riches 
were turned into money to help the Saviour's 
poor, would it not be a better way of doing 
' His bidding ' ? For the poor and the hun- 
gry are not far from the masses of wealth, 
wherever or in whatever form it may be. I 
appreciate aesthetically this dazzling display of 
artistic splendor and riches, but my heart goes 
out in pity and sympathy toward the multitude 
who are taxed to support it. And are not 
these terrible differences, whether in church or 
in society, the seed which may some time 



LETTER XI. 239 

grow into anarchy and revolution ? Even in 
dear, good Boston, not long ago, I heard a 
delicate woman, who toiled daily for her in- 
valid husband and three little ones, say, ' I am 
so discouraged to-day in my struggle for the 
necessities of life that it is almost maddening 
to take up the paper and see that Mrs. A. had 
a thousand dollars worth of flowers at her ball 
last night, that Mrs. B. wore a ten thousand 
dollar necklace, and so on.' 

This town is well supplied with churches, 
there being twenty noted ones here. I did 
not feel much inclined to see anything less 
impressive than the cathedral, but submissively 
followed F. to St. Ursula, for, she said, no- 
where else could I see the bones of eleven 
thousand virgins. And sure enough, there 
they were ! many of them placed in position, 
like rails in a Virginia fence. Three thou- 
sand skulls are also ranged along on shelves 
together, grinning silently at each other. If 
Hamlet runs out of skulls, there are plenty in 
Cologne. The decorations, however, would 
probably not be thrown in, as they are worth 
a good deal more than the skulls. Some wear 



240 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

embroidered and jewelled hoods, others wear 
caps of silver and gold. There is a painting 
of St. Ursula here,' and the shrine of St. 
Ursula, set with precious stones. ^ And this is 
the arm-bone of St. Ursula,' said our solemn 
guide. ^ Is it really ? ' said I. ^And this is her 
foot.' ' My ! just think of it, F. ! St. Ursula's 
foot !' And with renewed solemnity our guide 
continued, ^And this is her hair net.' ^Her 
hair net ! do let me see it closer. Are her 
false crimps here also ?' ^ And here are the 
teeth of the virgins.' * Blessed virgins ! they 
will never have the toothache any more from 
these teeth !' ^ And here is the vase in which 
the water was turned to wine at the marriage- 
feast at Can a, in Galilee ! ' ' Is it possible ? do 
you really believe it ? ' said I. The man — a 
handsome priest — bowed low and crossed 
himself. Much of the story of St. Ursula and 
her pilgrimage is illustrated in paintings on 
the walls of the church. We surely had our 
money's worth, and our fill of churches for one 
day. 

Our German friend does not forget us, 
although now miles away ! Flowers, and a let- 



LETTER XI. 241 

ter to F., which we find upon returning to our 
hotel, prove this. The letter is so ^ cute/ and 
so original, also, in its attempts to express its 
writer's feelings in English, that I will copy it 
for you, word for word, for you will appreciate 
it, and I am sure he would not object, for you 
do not even know his name : — 

My dear Miss : I fear this first letter 

will be very sentimental, but I cannot help it. 
I must once more tell it to you how sorry I am 
that I fear our acquaintance will now be fin- 
ished already, and how much I felicite myself 
to have had the bonheur of this acquaintance. 
Also I feel obliged to thank you much for 
the confidence you kindly have had in 
granting unto me this acquaintance. It I 
never will forget. Yes, it is a bad, sorry word, 
the word Abschied. I don't know it meant 
in English. Before all, if we pronounce it, 
with the very doubtful hope to see the person 
everywhere again, to whom we have to pro- 
nounce that word. You must have seen how 
much it gave me pain and trouble to say it to 
you that evening. By writing, that goes bet- 



24:2 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

ter, than I not do see your eyes, hear your 
voice, feel your presence but in mind. I now 
bow down for trying to say to you that for- 
ever I will cherish you, as I was an old friend 
of yours, and that I desire, of all my heart, 
you may be as happy in all your life as any- 
body can be, and as you want to be. Wher- 
ever you exist, all my wishes and love will be 

for you, and all the regards for Madame 

accompanying you. And now, enough of my 
deep feelings, for I fear you may become angry 
to so hear them, and regulate of your promise 
to hear my correspondence. If you will have a 
next letter, I will do my very better to be less 
melancolie in that following letter, for to-day 
I cannot else. Allow me pleasure to send you 
some sweet roses — similie, similie, say the 
homeopaths ; that means — 01 know here that 
means true here, and you must know it. Fare- 
well, my sweet American lady, and good-bye. 
My hope and longing for the seeing you again 
is inexplicable. Please now make my most 

respectful compliments to Madame , and 

do hold me, while life lasts, in your good friend- 
ship. I hope you will excuse my bad English, 



LETTER XI. 243 

for it all comes from this hearty and not from 
this head of your faithful friend forever, who 
is in pain to say adieu to you, and more than 
ever before must I go to America and your 
city Boston. I pray you do write to me, your 
friend, who shall wait and watch for your 
words. .' 

I doubt if we could answer in German, on 
paper, and make ourselves as clearly under- 
stood. We hope sometime to see our devoted 
and much-valued friend again. 

Hotel JDisch, August 2d, 1888. — We have 
had a long drive about the city to-day. 
We saw the bridge of boats and went into 
the cathedral for the third time, and each 
time its beauty impresses us more and more. 
If the tradition connected with the architecture 
of the cathedral is true, that his Satanic majesty 
designed it, he certainly did that better than 
any of the rest of his works. The exterior is 
also most pleasing to the eye, look at it in any 
way you will, and the spires, the towers, and 
the buttresses, with their elaborately carved 
pinnacles, are ^things of beauty,' never to 
be forgotten. 



244 



A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 



In our ramble later in the day through the 
streets, which seem to be laid out something 
like half circles, a little ragamuffin pulled my 
dress and asked in German, ^ Can I show you 
the horses.' The child's dirty face was wan 
and haggard, so we could not begrudge a few 
pennies given him, and I took his hand, which 
seemed to please him immensely and on we 
walked together. *^There they are,' said he. And 
sure enough, looking from a second story win- 
dow of an old house are two gray horses, stuffed, 
I presume, but their appearance is very life-like. 
The story explaining their being there runs 
like this. The beautiful wife of a rich man 
apparently died. The grief of the husband 
was so intense that he would allow no one to 
come near her, and placed her in the tomb him- 
self, with her rich garments and jewelry on. 
Thieves went at night to steal these articles, 
when at their touch she arose and asked, 
* Where am I ? ' The men, alarmed, ran away 
at full speed, leaving the doors open, and the 
woman, who had only been in a trance, walked 
out into the street, and to her husband's house. 
She knocked at the door until her husband was 



LETTER XI. 



245 



aroused and asked who knocked. She repHed, 
' It is I, thy own Richmodis, thy wife.' ^ No/ 
said he, * my wife is dead, and the dead rise no 
more; sooner would my two grays trot up the 
staircase into my room and look out of the win- 
dow.' He immediately heard a noise, and his 
two horses came into his room, placed their 
fore feet on the window sill and looked out, 
and there they have been looking ever since. 
And the poor wife, let us hope, was received as 
flesh and blood. Old traditions and history 
repeat themselves constantly in these ancient 
foreign cities. 

A party of young girls, with their teacher, 
arrived at our hotel to-day from Massachusetts, 
and it was a delight to see their faces and to 
hear our own tongue. E. reached us this even- 
ing from Bayreuth, filled to the brim with 
Wagner, and greatly regretting that we were 
not there to see and to hear. Of the latter 
pleasure we know something from the exquis- 
itely rendered Parsifal selections given at our 
own Symphony Concerts, but to see Parsifal in 
the home of its composer is a delight yet to 
come. 



246 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

August 3d, 1888. — Leaving Cologne, and 
carrying much cologne with us, we started at 
nine o'clock A. m. for Utrecht, turning our faces 
toward the cathedral's spire as long as we could 
catch a glimpse of it, and soon we are out of 
Germany and in Holland. For all the Ger- 
mans drink so much beer, we have never seen 
in the country one intoxicated person, and 
who could go far in our own land and say 
that ? '^ 'Tis true, and pity 'tis 'tis true,' that 
the poor whiskey deluded Americans drink 
is many times more deadly and destructive 
than beer. Although we have had few oppor- 
tunities of seeing the better class of Germans 
in their homes, we know that home-life is 
sweet and sacred to them, and the Germans are 
everywhere proverbially honest and their word 
to be depended upon. Their country is not 
only a military one, but it is the nation of music, 
of the sciences, and people of all other nations 
flock here for instruction. 




LETTER XII. 
At Utrecht, our first Holland city, at the 
station, we had our first glimpse of a Holland 
lady in her national costume. She stepped 
from her carriage and stood near us for several 
moments, and in that time, I fear, we proved 
to be as good ^ starers ' as the French are. I 
wish I could make you see her just as I did. 
She was a large-framed, good-looking woman. 
Her dress skirt was of stiff black satin, in 
length considerably above her ankles. She 
wore a full white waist, over which she had a 
jacket, cut the shape of a zouave garment, of 
black cloth, upon the front of which seemed to 
be gilt or gold ornaments, that looked like 
military decorations ; but her head rigging was 
the oddest of all. First she had on a cap-like 



248 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

covering, that looked as if made of white tarle- 
ton, with a full front, into which were stuck 
numerous gold pins, from the heads of several of 
which diamonds flashed ; a broad gold band ran 
from side to side across her forehead, and from 
each end hung a gold ornament ; over this she 
wore a flaring straw bonnet. She had on white 
kid gloves, and looked and moved every inch a 
lady. 

We were a good while delayed before being 
able to get a two-seated carriage, for everybody 
in the sleepy old town moved slowly, but after 
a while we were furnished with an open 
barouche and a handsome pair of slow-moving 
black horses, and were driven about the city. 
Utrecht means ^ Old Ford,' and the place looks 
quiet and dull, although it has a beautiful park 
and many fine, large residences, but they all 
seemed shut up ; and we came to the conclu- 
sion, after a disgusting incident a little later, of 
which I will tell you, that the older people were 
off travelling. 

On one of the best streets of Utrecht stood 
a group of well-dressed children, intelligent 
and attractive looking. Just as I had finished 



LETTER XII. 249 

a remark complimentary to them, we were cov- 
ered, deluged, blinded with mud and manure 
thrown at us by these remarkably innocent 
looking children, who had grouped there for 
this very purpose with the dirt in their hands, 
coolly awaiting and watching our approach. 
A second time, in another part of the city, we 
were attacked in the same manner by children, 
and this time E. rushed from the carriage, so 
indignant was he at the coarse outrage ; and 
although both times the children took fast to 
their heels, they would have been severely 
and justly punished if I had not begged our 
defender to let them go, and not take up the 
little time we had in having them overtaken. 
Our driver said it was a very common occur- 
rence for the youth of the town to thus attack 
strangers. I just longed to give them a good 
Yankee chastisement. We visited the cathe- 
dral, and my companions went up into the 
tower, from which they had a good view, 
but I had seen all of Utrecht that I desired, 
but was destined to see one more disturbing 
scene. 

A canal runs through the town, and the 



250 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

boats are mostly managed and towed along by 
women, — old white-haired women lifting and 
tugging away at bags and barrels, pulling at 
the ropes of the boats ; and at the rope of one 
huge canal boat a woman and a cow were pull- 
ing together. The water in the canal was low 
and the mosquitoes were high, for they also 
attacked us in our carriage, the very first ones 
we have met with on the continent. So, after 
a really good dinner — the only acceptable 
attention received by us in Utrecht, — we were 
glad to push on to Amsterdam. 

Holland is largely a grazing country, very 
level, with vast pastures filled with cattle, 
horses, and sheep, all fine-looking specimens of 
their race. At one little station where we 
waited I stepped close to a dike, on the other 
side of which were hundreds of sheep ; as if 
by one consent they all raised their heads and 
looked at me in such a human way that I 
felt like an intruder, bowed respectfully to 
them, and retreated. The Holstein cattle are 
noble-looking creatures, and the horses of Hol- 
land handsome animals, — dignified steppers, 
but heavy and slow. Cattle and horses are all 



LETTER XII. 251 

black, or black and white, and all the cats I 
have yet seen here are black. I saw four big 
black tabbies at Utrecht. We pass through 
several little Dutch villages, see farmhouses in 
the distance, glints of blue water far away, dikes 
all about us, and, as we near Amsterdam, big 
windmills without number. And here we 
are! 

Amsterdam, August 4cth, 1888, — Do you 
remember our old Dutch nurse, who used to 
tell me stories, in Pittsburg, Penn., of her 
home in Amsterdam ? And now here I am to 
tell you a little about the same place as I see 
it. Our first stroll revealed to us one of the 
queerest, quaintest cities we had anywhere vis- 
ited. Directly after breakfast we went to the 
markets, where the peasantry were selling fruit, 
vegetables, fowl, crocheted articles, plants and 
flowers, cheese, butter, and much else ; the ven- 
ders themselves, in their queer dress, being the 
most attractive of all to us. The women 
nearly all wore the queer-looking head-dresses 
of their country, although not made up as 
richly as the one we saw at Utrecht, and all had 
on heavy, woollen stockings and wooden shoes, 



252 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

and when not busy otherwise were vigorously 
knitting. 

From the market we went to the quarters of 
the poorer class of Jews, where the streets were 
narrow, the homes squalid, and the little rooms 
fairly crowded with human beings, packed 
closer than were ever sardines. In one small, 
dirty front entry we counted sixteen children. 
Our carriage was surrounded, every time we 
stopped, by crowds of lookers-on, young and 
old, tattered and torn, but all behaved well. 
*How true it is that one half of the world 
knows not how the other half lives' There 
are about thirty thousand Jews in this city, — 
many richer than kings, and many who know 
not * where to lay their heads.' 

Acquaintances who have visited this city 
have given me different ideas of it, more dis- 
paraging it than praising, but I find it delight- 
ful, and filled with interest. 

Amsterdam, now the capital of Holland, you 
know, and by far its richest city, was in the 
twelfth century only a small village. When 
the Spaniards persecuted the so-called Re- 
formers of other Dutch and Flemish towns, 



LETTER XII. ' 253 

they fled to Amsterdam, taking with them their 
riches and their industries, and to them the 
place owes the beginning of prosperity. The 
River Amstel divides the place, the one side 
being called the Oude Zijde (old side), and the 
other Nieuwe Zijde (new side). It is said that 
ninety canals intersect the city, and I know 
there is one in about every street, and draw- 
bridges are built over them. In the prettier 
parts of the city these canals have avenues of 
handsome residences, and lines of shade trees 
on one or both sides. On these houses, nailed 
close to the side of the upper windows, we ob- 
served the so-called ^Spiegless' mirrors — on 
hinges, which could be turned so as to allow a 
person sitting within to see all that was going 
on in the street below, up or down. They 
answer the purposes of our bay-windows. In 
some of the older parts of the city the queer 
Dutch houses are painted black, with white 
trimmings, and were apparently ' dropped down ' 
together, and remain wherever they happened 
to light, Marblehead-like ; and in many of them 
the upper story pitches forward, as if to greet 
the opposite roof, in a most neighborly and 



254 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

social manner, and altogether they are exceed- 
ingly picturesque. 

We visited one of the large diamond factor- 
ies, and saw every process used on the stone in 
its rough condition, to cause it to become the 
glittering, costly gem, ready for the adornment 
of ' my lady.' The different work upon the 
stones was to me intensely interesting. We 
jsaw little mounds of diamonds, cut and pol- 
ished, ready for the diamond market, that 
were radiantly brilliant. The gentleman who 
escorted us through the building was very 
polite, and exerted himself to give us clear ex- 
planations of everything we wished to under- 
stand. Two officials kept pretty close to us, 
however ; they may have thought that ^ piles ' 
of diamonds might prove too seductive for even 
American honesty. These mills give employ- 
ment to about ten thousand workmen, mostly 
Jews, and many of the establishments are 
owned by wealthy Jews. Most of the best cut 
stones of the present age have been cut here. 
Well, we cannot always live amongst dia- 
monds, so out into the air we go, for if but 
one can be ours, the latter is better, — oxygen 
rather than carbon. 



LETTER XII. 2i55 

The commerce of the place is extensive, as a 
visit to the docks proved. Ships from nearly 
every part of the world bring merchandise 
here, and take back the products of Holland. 
Amsterdam cheese, gin, and chocolate we well 
know, but we did not suppose so many other 
valuable articles were manufactured here. We 
see not merely one woman at work here on 
the boats, but hundreds of women. Many of 
them know no other home ; whole families live 
on boats, children are born on them, and on 
them many human beings close their eyes on 
this life. Everything about these boats is 
scrupulously clean j pretty Dutch girls, with 
their short dresses and wooden shoes, peep 
from behind the fresh, white muslin curtains 
to look at us ; and women who are not doing 
harder work sit around with the inevitable 
queer head-dress on, and the blue kerchiefs 
pinned across their breasts, knitting away as if 
lives depended upon stockings being finished. 
These Amsterdam canal boats have sails, and 
look very odd to us. 

We took a three-mile sail for a rest, then 
landed, and lunched in a rose-embowered 



256 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

arbor in a pretty garden. Refreshed, we took 
a barge back, thus getting good views of the 
river banks ; and next went to the Zoological 
Gardens, the best we have seen anywhere. 
How the beautiful, bright-plum aged birds, 
walking and flying in the open air, seemingly 
free from the almost invisible chains that held 
them, welcomed us in their gorgeous costumes ; 
how the tall flamingo showed us his best ballet 
steps, — I have not time to give you details. 
The extensive aquarium connected with the gar- 
dens contained a wealth of wonders. Why do 
we not have places of such interest in Boston ? 
As we stepped out of the garden we observed, 
on a neat-looking house, a singular sign, ' Hot 
Popjies.' With our usual curiosity we entered, 
and found that ^ popjies ' were nothing more 
or less than genuine Yankee griddle cakes, 
and very good ones too, served with butter and 
sugar. 

The best picture gallery in Amsterdam, the 
Rijks Museum, is the best in Holland. Here 
we saw Rembrandt's ^ Night Watch,' of which 
we have often seen engravings, but were not 
prepared for such beautiful effects of colors as 



LETTER XII. 257 

we found in the original. Near this painting 
is a still larger one, representing a celebrated 
banquet of the City Guard of Amsterdam, in 
1684, by Yander Heist, and here too is Jan 
Steen's ' Lady and the Parrot,' and other beau- 
tiful paintings by this pleasing artist. One 
picture here, by Gerard Duow, called the ' Even- 
ing School,' cost forty thousand dollars, although 
not over a half-yard long, and not measuring 
as much across. This painting has five or six 
different effects of light produced on it from 
the burning candles represented. A girl is 
pointing to her lesson with her finger, and a 
boy is writing on a slate j a candle, held by 
another girl standing back of them, throws a 
light on their backs, and another candle, 
lighted, which is on a table, throws light 
upon their faces, but it would be impossible 
for you to imagine the peculiar glow and love- 
liness of it all- All of the works from this 
man's easel are charming. There are here sev- 
eral of Paul Potter's paintings, wonderful in 
execution, and particularly to be considered so 
when we think how young he must have been 
when he painted them. Here are hens, chick- 



258 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

ens, geese, and ducks, all so natural that we 
almost hear their cackle. Here are landscapes, 
interiors of Dutch homes, and portraits with- 
out number, works of Tenier, Van Mieris, Van 
Dyck, Peter Schilder, Dolens, Frans Hals, and 
the many other Dutch artists. It is one of the 
most enjoyable collections of pictures we have 
anywhere seen. It is a marvel to me how the 
old masters and the noted artists ever did so 
much work ; they must have gone right ahead, 
and not even laid down their brushes long 
enough to have had pleasant little disputes over 
the hanging of their pictures. But thanks to 
them for having left to us such great sources 
of pleasure ! 

Amsterdam abounds in excellent charitable 
institutions. I think I could name over as 
many as there are in Boston ; and there are 
schools and societies for educating the poor, 
and for their advancement, that do great credit 
to the citizens. I am told that the rich here 
of every sect spend freely their money for 
the benefit of the poor. There is a palace on 
a square called the Dam, in the middle of the 
city, containing large rooms, but without much 



LETTER XII. 259 

elegance excepting the ball-room. The churches 
of the city are numerous, and some fine ones, 
but as we have not time to see everything in 
this remarkable place, we have decided to omit 
the churches this time. 

We were told of a ^ swell ' restaurant, and 
for a change dined there to-day. It was a 
^ swell ' place, we had a ^ swell ' dinner, and paid 
' swell ' prices. They certainly know how to 
tempt one's appetite, but the submitting to the 
temptation must be generously paid for. We 
have seen a fine statue of Rembrandt ; and we 
have observed objects very new to us, which 
are queer, ludicrous-looking faces, over the 
doors of drug stores, with mouths wide open, 
and tongues protruding, as if to show that 
they were coated, or feverish, and needed 
doctoring. I was so amused at these that I 
asked the meaning of them, if they had any, 
but no one seemed to know, only that they 
were called ^ Gappers.' 

After seeing pretty thoroughly the business 
part of the city, we were more surprised than 
ever upon being driven to the aristocratic end, 
where the wealthier people live, to find so much 



260 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

beauty. The streets were broad and finely 
cared for ; the residences palatial, large, and 
varied in architecture, with beautiful grounds 
about them. Fine carriages abounded, filled 
with well-dressed people, in whom we supposed 
we saw the descendants of the Van Dycks, Yan 
de Werffs, and all of the other Vans ; and these 
families maintain much elegance and regal style 
in living. In this drive we had many glimpses 
of it ; and ended the day by being entertained 
right royally in one of these beautiful homes by 
a gentleman and his charming family, to whom 
we had letters of introduction, and who had 
previously called upon us, and engaged us for 
the evening. If we could have spared time to 
accept, these people would have extended many 
courtesies to us, and their cordial hospitality we 
shall never forget. The whole of Amsterdam 
is indeed delightful, and far exceeds my expec- 
tations. We leave it with regret. We made 
hasty excursions to Haarlem, to see the wonder- 
ful hyacinths and tulips ; and to the over-clean 
town of Broek, where notices are put on doors 
' to take off your shoes before entering ; ' and 
to the Island of Marken, in the Zuider Zee, to 



LETTER XII. 261 

see the queer dress of the peasants who live 
there, and never leave their homes, nor ever 
intermarry with the inhabitants of the main- 
land. Their costume is the same as that worn 
by their ancestors of a hundred years ago. 




LETTER XIII. 

Hotel Vieux Doelen", 
The Hague, Holland, August 6th, 1888. 

In coming from Amsterdam here we saw 
water-lilies — sheets of them — on rivers and 
dikes ! Yes, just like our own New England 
blossoms. How I did want the ears to stop, 
so that I could get a breath of their fragrance 
— a breath of Cape Cod — a breath of Ply- 
mouth ponds — a breath of East Taunton's 
sweetest offerings ! We saw storks too, tall and 
stately, carrying with them good luck, and 
bearing good omens. Our hotel here is a noted 
one ; it is several centuries old, and has been 
always the stopping place for members of noble 
families, travelling from all over the world. 
It has been several times restored, and is very 
comfortable. Peter the Great and his suite, 



264 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

King Don Ferdinand of Portugal, and a list, 
as long as your arm, of kings, princes, and 
dukes, have been registered as guests in this 
historic old mansion. On our arrival the house 
was crowded, and to F. and myself was given 
the state guest chamber, in which these crowned 
heads have rested. The furniture of the large 
room, which is on the first floor, is massive, 
made of mahogany, ebony and gilt, with light- 
blue silk coverings, and puffs of light-blue 
silk to throw over our tired bodies. So much 
elegance for us, while E. is tucked up under 
the roof somewhere, so full is the house. 

After arranging our luggage in our room, 
and resting a wee bit, off we started for Schev- 
eningen. It took but a short time to reach 
this celebrated watering-place by steam-cars, 
which we took to save time. As we stepped 
out of our car at the station a strange picture 
greeted us. There before us was the North 
Sea, throwing its big waves toward the beach 
— the first glimpse of sea that we had had for 
many a day, and its roar was music to us. The 
broad beach was smooth, hard, and white, and 
at this point was covered, as were also the 



LETTER XIII. 



265 



dunes in back of it, with the peasantry, Dutch 
women and children, old grandmothers, and 
mothers with their little ones of all ages, 
playing in the beautiful white sand. We 
spread our wraps on the beach, and sat down 
amongst them and we are evidently as strange 
a sight to them, as they are to us. The wee 
urchins gradually approach us in a shy manner, 
but E. coaxes them nearer by distributing bits 
of coin amongst them, and speaking words 
which they understand ; and a close look at 
their sweet, fresh faces is worth the price. 
These little ones are fair, rosy-cheeked, blue- 
eyed tots, with long, flaxen tresses, surmounted 
by little, close, white caps. They are dressed 
alike, in dark-blue dresses, with little handker- 
chiefs crossed on their chests, and all wear 
wooden shoes. The costumes of old and 
young vary but little, and all look fresh and 
clean. The women were knitting, and chatting 
with each other, and occasionally one would go 
toward the water, hold her hands over her eyes, 
and peer far out to sea. They were straining 
their sight to catch glimpses of the boats that 
carried the men most dear to them. These 



266 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

wives and mothers come mornings with their 
fishermen, push them out on the water in their 
boats with a ^ God speed you/ and then stay 
on the beach, with their children and their 
knitting, until the men sail in again. They 
then help drag the boats on shore, unload, and 
carry the freshly caught fish to market. The 
lucky fellow who has caught the greatest 
number of fish as his day's work is entitled to 
kiss the maid he thinks the prettiest in the 
crowd, and the rest look on and clap their 
hands, and there seems to be no jealousy 
amongst them. The Dutch fishing boats, with 
their brown sails, are queer-looking craft, and 
have been painted by many of our own artists. 
The beach from here extends for about forty 
miles, I am told, in a straight line, washed 
by the cold North Sea waves — without rocks 
or inlets. 

We next proceeded to the fashionable end 
of the beach ; a division rope separates the 
portion allotted to the fisherwomen from this. 
What will divide the poor from the rich in 
heaven, I wonder? Will it not be Father 
Abraham's voice only, when he says the words, 



LETTER XIII. 267 

^ Remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst 
thy good things '? How different this scene ! 
Here is a fashionable watering-place, with 
huge hotels, restaurants, stores, and crowds 
of stylish people. This is more like Old Point, 
Narragansett, or Newport than anything we 
have before seen. But the beach is superior 
to any of these, and the bathing-wagons on 
wheels, in which the bathers are carried to the 
water, and back to the hotels after their baths, 
were quite new to us. They contain all toilet 
utensils, an abundance of towels, and are most 
certainly a great improvement over the way 
bathers at our own sea-side resorts come out of 
the water, with dripping costumes clinging to 
the skin, to face a crowd of lookers-on. Here, 
too, a space for those who bathe is roped off, 
and others are not allowed to go within that 
enclosure. The bath-chairs were also a great 
delight to me. Here were hundreds of them, 
basket-work, with covers and without, and foot- 
stools added, in which we could sit and look 
upon the sea, protected from the sun and the 
wind. Some were for one, and in others two 
or three could sit together. The sense of rest 



268 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

was most delightful in these chairs, with the 
broad, blue expanse of water and sky before 
us. Gay, merry children were riding about on 
ponies and donkeys, and the road between the 
hotels and the beach was filled with carriages 
and people on horseback. 

But the hours flew rapidly amidst such scenes 
as these, and the sun was going to rest; so, 
reluctantly, we turned our steps toward the 
big hotel on the crest. The piazzas were 
crowded with people in full dress, but, with our 
travelling gowns on, we mixed in, and went to 
dinner. In the house was a beautiful hall or 
concert room, and after dinner the Philhar- 
monic Orchestra of Berlin gave a choice concert 
there. The music was superb, and nowhere in 
Europe had we seen so fine-looking an assem- 
blage ; many of the ladies were remarkably 
handsome, and all were dressed in excellent 
taste. 

Hotel Vieux Doelen, The Hague, August 
7th. — You would have laughed had you been 
with us in our fine room this morning. Our 
commode looks like a sideboard, and is so 
high that I had to stand on a chair to take my 



LETTER XIII. 269 

morning splash ; and as I began to fill my bowl 
with water, something jumped, and so did I. 
I The shade of Peter the Great !' said F., but 
it was only a little, harmless toad, which had 
probably come in at the window, which I had 
left open. The arrangements for bathing and 
washing in houses in this land are very meagre 
and inconvenient. 

The Hague seems a very elegant, sleepy, 
quiet city. The streets are broad, many 
of them bordered with handsome limes, and 
the residences are large and square. Canals 
are here, also, but do not seem to be used 
much, if any, and the water looks stagnant. 
In one street, the odor from the canal was 
very offensive, although the streets on its bor- 
ders were beautiful ones, and this is the resi- 
dence of the Court ; in fact, the place has really 
the appearance of an exclusive little royal city 
dropped in the centre of a grand old forest. 
It has pretty parks and gardens, and a plea- 
sant promenade around a lake, called the 
Vijver, or fish pond, from the water of which 
the old palace seems to be rising. In the 
square is the statue of William the Silent, who 



270 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

did SO much to effect the hberty of Holland, 
and who was a father to its people. This 
brave man's faith never failed him, nor did he 
ever swerve from what seemed to him his 
duty, through political storms or discouraging 
defeats ; freedom for all, and the right to wor- 
ship God in accordance with the dictates of 
one's own conscience he fought for as long as 
he lived. In Delft, a little town near bj, he 
was struck down by an assassin. 

The best stores here have very little appear- 
ance, from the outside, of being stores at all. 
Perhaps, as a sign, there is one elegant vase, 
or a choice piece of drapery in the window ; 
but upon stepping within, room after room 
filled with exquisite goods surprises you — rare 
laces, china, furniture, antiques, and every- 
thing else beautiful to tempt one to buy. 

I very much wished to go into the palace 
where the King of Holland and his family 
live. We have seen many palaces where 
royalty has resided, but few occupied by kings 
and queens at the present time. We suc- 
ceeded in gaining permission to do so, not 
expecting to see more than the state apart- 



LETTER XIII, 271 

ments. As we neared tlie palace entrance we 
saw the royal carriage stop at the door and the 
King and Queen and their little daughter the 
Princess Wilhelmine, with a maid, enter it. 
The carriage was a heavy, lumbering-looking 
affair with two horses only. We might have 
been much nearer them, but our escort said 
no, as an introduction might then be neces- 
sary, and it was no compliment to American 
ladies to be presented to the present King 
of Holland, but I looked with all my eyes 
and this is what I saw : A man, over sev- 
enty years old surely, feeble-appearing in his 
gait, and, although not bad looking, with a 
certain tell-tale appearance of having led a 
somewhat profligate life. The young Queen 
Emma looks about twenty-eight, has a full 
face, bright complexion, and pleasant expres- 
sion, and was dressed in a gray costume. She 
is, you know, his second wife, and a daughter 
of the Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont, one of the 
poor, insignificant sovereigns of Germany, and 
she is sister to the Duchess of Albany, the 
daughter-in-law of Queen Victoria. It is said 
there was much feeling on the part of the 



272 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

Dutch against this young woman at first, for 
it was thought her great ambition was to be 
Queen of the Netherlands ; but she has made 
her way into the hearts of the people, and has 
proved also a good wife and mother. The 
King's first wife was the Princess Sophia of 
Wurtemburg, and was a remarkably talented, 
gracious woman, a fine linguist, musical, a 
charming conversationalist, unaffected, affable 
in manner, and dearly beloved by her people. 
She died about ten years ago. She had two 
sons, both now dead. So the little Wilhel- 
mine, whom we saw, will be, after her father's 
death, which cannot be far off, the Queen of 
Holland. She is a pretty child, and looked in 
dress and movements no different from hun- 
dreds of our own little eight-year-old girls. 
The people here seem to be much attached to 
their king, and say he has been a benefactor to 
them, and that his public life has been beyond 
reproach, whatever his faults in private life 
may have been. 

As they drove away we entered the palace 
through the same door at which they came 
out, and were most kindly shown through it* 



LETTER XIII. 273 

Their breakfast-table remained just as the 
family had left it after taking their morning 
meal. Probably servants do not hurry ' to 
clear off the table' in royal households, any 
more than they do in our own homes when we 
go out for a morning jaunt. Everything in 
the dining-room was rich and elegant, and the 
gold breakfast-service worth looking at. The 
drawing-rooms, reception-rooms, libraries, and 
other apartments were in truth palatial, and 
altogether it was by far the finest palace we 
have seen. 

They have another palace about three miles 
aw^ay, called ' Huis-ten-Bosch,' or House in the 
Wood, to which a little later we were driven ; 
and it was a drive, the memory of which will 
always seem restful. The day was lovely, and 
as we rolled along over the splendid road in 
the woods, which is really an immense, woody 
park, retaining all its natural beauties, it was 
so quiet that we could hear a leaf fall. The 
birds only broke the stillness with their occa- 
sional trills, and we met no life on our way 
excepting a party of ladies on horseback with 
their groom. After so much bustle the rest- 



274 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

ful, shadowy stillness was delightful to us. 
This summer palace is a plain building sur- 
rounded by beech trees, is very richly furnished, 
and contains valuable pictures and rare, costly 
ornaments, superb draperies, and curiosities. 
Queen Sophia dearly loved this ' Huis-ten- 
Bosch,' and spent much of her time within it. 
Here she cordially welcomed her friends, with- 
out ceremony, forgetful of station and self, ever 
keenly alive to the happiness and needs of all 
who came into her presence. She once re- 
marked ' that God seemed nearer to her here 
than elsewhere.' The present Queen seldom 
comes here. 

We next went into the Holland Exposition, 
now open. O dear ! the days are not half 
long enough to see all we wish to. You will 
be glad, I know, when I tell you that we do 
not get very tired. We ride instead of walk- 
ing much, so as to save our strength for in- 
teriors where we must walk and stand ; and we 
eat often, for E. says * machinery so constantly 
run must be often oiled.' How I wish I could 
run in to ^ 144 ' to-day and have one of their 
delicious home dinners, — roast chickens, all 



LETTER XIII. 275 

kind of vegetables, prepared just right, jellies 
and pickles, and all at hand when wanted, and, 
not the least of the sweets, the always sweet 
welcome, thrown in ! We do get so tired of 
these table d'hote dinners, — every dish served 
without any seasoning, and only one at a time, 
and the waits between courses long enough for 
one's hair to grow gray. And yet what crea- 
tures of habit we are. E. likes it, because he 
has lived over here so much of his life that he 
has become accustomed to it. It is a perverted 
taste, and most surely a great waste of precious 
time. Our bill of fare for dinner has been just 
about the same every day since we left the 
Schweizerhoff at Schaffhausen, where it was 
most acceptably varied. 

To show that we can be wrongly educated 
in our appreciation of food and in the way we 
eat it, I will venture to tell you a true story of 
a little boy we know, who had lived in France 
and Germany the greater part of his life of 
ten years. He was taken to New York a year 
or so ago, and there studied English with his 
governess. One fine day his aunt took him to 
her home in the country to spend the day. 



276 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

When he returned at night he said he was 
hungry. ^ Why, did you not have any din- 
ner ? ' he was asked. * I did not eat any.' 
^Why not?' 'I did not want it.' ^ Why 
not ? ' was again asked, curiosity becoming 
excited. At last the little fellow, so closely 
questioned, cried out in despair, in his broken 
English, ' Because Auntie had " swill " for 
dinner.' Upon investigation it was ascertained 
that the dinner was the old-fashioned, substan- 
tial one of corned beef and its satellites of 
various vegetables served at the same time. 
The boy, the day before, had been reading a 
story about pigs, in which the word ' swill ' was 
used. He asked his teacher what that word 
meant, — an inelegant one at best, — and she 
told him, a little hastily perhaps, that it meant 
bits of meat, potato, turnip, or other particles of 
food all thrown together ; and he thought, in 
his day's visit, that he had an ocular and tan- 
gible demonstration of the definition. 

The Hague, Wednesday, August 8th, — 
The memorables of to-day : First, the Royal 
Picture Gallery, where are many costly and 
valuable treasures. I have anticipated much 



LETTER XIII. 277 

pleasure in seeing the collection here, knowing 
well of many of the paintings, and I have not 
been disappointed. Kembrandt's '^ Lecture on 
Anatomy,' known of the world over, is a won- 
derful study, and a grand representation of 
death and life on canvas. The old learned 
doctor Nicholas Tulp, with a dead body before 
him, is explaining to seven other surgeons the 
dissecting of the subject. These faces are all 
real portraits of physicians, and the expressions 
of interest and attention given in them to the 
lecturer's words and movements are grandly 
and wonderfully portrayed. Nor is there the 
slightest thing repulsive in the picture ; on the 
contrary, it has the effect of making one 
desirous of sitting down to listen to the les- 
son also. Here too is Rembrandt's ' Presenta- 
tion,' a perfect gem : Joseph and Mary are pre- 
senting the ' Holy Child ' for a blessing. Paul 
Potter's famous ^ Bull ' is here, which Napoleon 
once stole and took to Paris, and it was then 
rated as the fourth picture in the Louvre, but 
after Napoleon's star of power had set the 
Dutch reclaimed it. This picture represents a 
bull, looking as if really alive, standing under 



278 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

the branches of a tree ; a cow, and a lamb with 
its parents, are also near by resting, and a pleas- 
ant-faced old farmer, standing with his arm os^ 
the trunk of the tree, is looking on well satisfied. 
These figures are life size, and are full of vigor. 
Although the collection here does not please 
me as much as the one in Amsterdam, i^ 
contains many gems of the Dutch and Flemish 
schools. Here are Berghems, Van Der Helstis- 
and Ruysdaels — mellow landscapes and restful 
pastoral scenes, helpful to look upon. But oh, 
I wish you could see all the grand paintings 
that are in this country ! It pains me, dear 
mother, to enjoy so much and you not with me ; 
but we shall not forget all we see, and will tell 
you more about it sometime. 

Storks are kept in the city at the public 
expense, as they are the arms of The Hague, the 
same as bears are of the city of Berne. And 
now, good-by to this aristocratic town, and on 
to Rotterdam, our last Holland city. 

Rotterdam is something like Amsterdam, 
although not nearly as attractive, nor anywhere 
nearly as clean. It is a large place, and its 
shipping interests considerable ; its canals and 



LETTER XIII. 279 

wharves are crowded. Here, as in Amsterdam, 
the houses are, many of them, built on piles, 
•nd the land is kept land by keeping the water 
in the canals, locks, and basins. It requires 
much money, good systems, and much energy 
to do this, but the Dutch have proved themselves 
o.qual to it. We hear here such names as the 
'Hoogstraat' (one o£ the streets), the ' Schie- 
damsche dyke,' etc., regular jaw-breakers. In 
fact, I think if Americans can understand or 
be understood in Holland, they need have no 
fears of not being able to travel in other parts 
of the globe, so far as ' language ' is concerned. 
We took a drive through the new portion of 
the city, where are many elegant residences. 
We went into two churches ; saw a fine statue 
of Erasmus the scholar, also one of Spinoza. We 
then went into many of the old, crooked, narrow 
streets of the older part of the city, called 
Binnenstad, and here everything looked very 
* Dutch ' like ; and it is the queer aspect of these 
foreign cities that I particularly enjoy, — the 
markets on market-day especially. The peas- 
ants at their stalls, in the funny gowns and 
funnier head-dresses, are perfectly fascinating. 
We bought delicious cherries and strawberries 



280 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

of them to-day. Some of the women had 
caps on that had long capes, others with caps 
close to the head, and others with inside 
frills, but one and all had the gold, gilt, or sil- 
ver band across the forehead, and the wire 
rosettes and pendants at the temples. 

We talked up our little stock of Dutch his- 
tory here, remembering that it was in this town 
that the Puritans of England, when persecuted, 
fled for refuge ; and here ' John Robinson [one 
of our own ancestors] fired them with longings 
for liberty, and they set sail to go across two 
seas to find a new home where they would have 
freedom to worship God.' What an amount of 
studying we will do next winter, and Motley's 
' Rise of the Dutch Republic ' we are looking 
forward to reading with much pleasure. 

Our admiration of the Dutch, always great, 
is much increased by this trip through their 
country. When one sees the obstacles they 
had to contend against in making their land 
habitable — old ocean itself for one, — and the 
victory they have achieved, it seems more won- 
derful even than their conquering the tyranny 
of Spain. They are an industrious, persever- 
ing, and honest people. 




LETTER XIV. 

Hotel de l'Eukope, 
Antwerp, Belgium, August 9, 1888. 

We reached here last night in time to take 
a look at this old city and to hear the ring- 
ing of ' bells, bells, bells.' We thought at 
first tlie}^ were ringing on account of our 
arrival, or for some other unusual occasion, but 
find we were mistaken. The bells of Antwerp 
are ringing always. We find at our hotel the 
M.'s, our pleasant Chamouni friends, and it 
was a pleasant surprise indeed to have them 
meet and greet us ; also Rev. Mr. G., of Bos- 
ton. 

Immediately after breakfast this morning we 
started for Brussels. We made every effort to 
have an early breakfast and have it quickly 



282 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

served, but the people of this land never hurry ; 
they do not know the meaning of the word. 
At eight A. M. we were seated at our table in 
the dining-room ready to eat, and had ordered 
our breakfast prepared one hour before, but 
there was nothing ready for us. * Will you 
hurry up our breakfast ? ' said E. to our sleepy- 
looking waiter. Slowly he answered, * It is 
cooking,' in his own lingo. Ten minutes go 
by. Another nod to the stolid waiter ; and in 
tones of entreaty, accompanied with a piece of 
money, E. said, * Will you not bring us some- 
thing to eat ? ' The man, still standing as stiff 
as a post, replied, ^ It is coming.' ' But we 
leave at eleven o'clock,' said E. in the man's 
own language. But the stupid Belgian did 
not see the joke, and did not relax a muscle. 

We have had a delightful day in Brussels, 
and modern Brussels is a beautiful city and in 
many ways much like Paris. It has broad, 
handsome streets and boulevards, beautiful 
parks, squares and gardens, with many rich 
statues, monuments, artificial lakes and foun- 
tains. The city is built on and up and down 
a hill — the new and elegant part of Brussels 



LETTER XIV. 283 

on top, and the old and poorer part at the foot. 
The royal family of Belgium live here, and 
have several handsome palaces. The Capitol 
is a magnificent structure, and there are many 
noted churches; we went into several of 
them, but of all these things I shall not now 
tell you very much. 

Service is always going on in some one part 
of these European cathedrals. In one that 
we stepped into to-day they were celebrating 
funeral rites, and before us were placed some 
painful paintings of Christ, showing his bleed- 
ing wounds. The Cathedral of St. Gudule is 
the largest and finest, and contains a great 
number of perfectly magnificent tapestries. 

We went into the largest art gallery in the 
city, where are many choice works, and we 
greatly enjoyed them ; but here too are more 
of Rubens' plump angels, of anything but 
angelic proportions, and I am sure if our Sun- 
day-school children at home should see some of 
them they would never sing, * I want to be an 
angel,' any more. Here are more of Tennier's 
beautiful productions, and fine pictures by 
Vander Weyden, Rhemi, Vander Meulen, and 



284 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

other noted Flemish artists, and the collec- 
tions give good opportunities for studying the 
Flemish schools. 

But the laces ! These laces are the most 
tempting of all things. We go into houses 
that on the outside look like private homes, 
and are politely asked to be seated at tables, 
when the women in attendance take from boxes 
and drawers their stores of rich fabrics and 
spread them out for our eyes to feast upon : 
flounces, handkerchiefs, fichus, capes, collars, 
all of the finest make and of most exquisite 
designs. In the Royal Lace Manufactory we 
saw the bridal trousseau of some noble lady, so 
called, which was just completed, and the dress, 
made entirely of the finest duchesse lace, was a 
marvel of loveliness. We were taken into the 
rooms where the women were making the 
^ dentelles,' and after seeing their methods we 
shall never again wonder that duchesse and 
point laces are such costly fabrics. Nearly all 
the most valuable laces of the world are made 
here, and many women spend their entire lives 
in making a piece of lace to ornament some 
other woman made of the same perishable dust 



LETTER XIV. 285 

as themselves and of whom they are the equals. 
Ah me ! We spent a short time in the Belgium 
Exposition, now open, and never before did I 
see in any one collection such a wilderness of 
rich, beautiful objects. A drive about the 
charming city, a short stop in the Botanical 
Gardens, and we are soon on the road back 
to Antwerp, with mingled thoughts of the 
paintings, gems, and laces back of us, and of 
Bonaparte and Waterloo, and the historic 
ground we are travelling over. We will save 
more time, and more money too, for Brussels 
in our next trip. 

Antwerp, Friday, August l^th. — This has 
been a rainy day, but we ought not to com- 
plain, for we have had but few of them. We 
have been out all the day, and have seen this 
old city pretty thoroughly, although many 
parts of it now have a modern look. Yet 
numerous old historic landmarks remain. I 
hope you will not get weary of hearing about 
art and artists, for we are in the land of 
Rubens and in the very cradle of art here. 
We saw to-day the house Rubens lived and 
died in. He is buried in the church of St. 



286 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS, 

Jacques, as are also his two wives. In this 
church is the picture of his ^ Virgin and 
Child/ with several other figures on the can- 
vas, all said to be likenesses of members of 
his family. In the museum are many works 
of all the noted old masters of the Dutch and 
Flemish school — for Antwerp gave birth to a 
long list of them — and here their works are 
treasured. Here is the noted ' Le Christ a la 
Paille ' — Christ dead, lying on a stone strewed 
with straw ; and here too is Vandyk's ^ Saviour 
on the Cross,' which tells the whole sublime 
story. Of the more modern pictures. Lady 
Godiva is worthy of mention. The flesh tints 
are exquisite. She is represented as just let- 
ting drop a curtain, which is of a bright, 
warm color, and her attitude is so graceful that 
one looks at her again and again. Of the 
many exquisite paintings we have seen here, I 
will tell you when I see you, which will not be 
long now, God willing. 

At noon it held up a little, so we took a 
drive about the town. Antwerp is the strong- 
hold of Belgium, and there are immense forti- 
fications about the city. The town has known 



LETTER XIV. 287 

great vicissitudes, and in old times terrible reli- 
gions persecutions, but it is now in a most 
prosperous condition, and trades with all the 
large mercantile cities of the world, as the 
piles of all kinds of merchandise we saw at the 
wharves proved to us. The beautiful double- 
width black silks are manufactured here, and 
can be purchased at low prices. The shops 
are fine, and present a tempting display of 
articles. 

I must tell you of a laughable incident that 
occurred to-day. E. and F. were walking in 
front of me, I lingering to look in the store 
windows, and carrying not only my own wrap, 
but one for F. also, over my arm. Two fine- 
looking ladies paused to look at us, for you 
must remember we are known as foreigners 
everywhere. One turned to the other and 
said, * Look, two foreign travellers and the 
lady's-maid ! ' I carry no more wraps ! 

Now, of only one more joy shall I tell you. 
The cathedral and its contents ! We had 
looked again and again at its tall, graceful, 
delicate spire, rising high above the houses, 
and we had heard its sweet, soft bells before 



288 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

going in. But now we have seen its inside 
walls and the glories they hold. The interior 
of the edifice is comparatively cold and barren, 
but the paintings within are delightful and 
surprise enough for a life-time. I forgive 
Rubens for his unangel-like angels, that I 
have not liked, for these wonderful works here 
of his surpass anything on canvas I have ever 
seen. I was expecting to behold something 
unusual in ^ The Descent from the Cross,' but 
not prepared for anything so miraculously 
beautiful and sublime. I could not tell to 
mortal my sensations upon first beholding this 
painting. I wonder now if it was a painting ! 
There was Christ dead ! His beautiful, pathe- 
tic face looked as if he had suffered, but 
it is now full of spiritualized peace and rest. 
Mary's sorrowful face, at his feet, is wet with 
her falling tears. The loving and beloved John 
is near, and Magdalen extends her arms to take 
the body of her dead Master. These faces are 
all exquisite, sadly so, and yet one seems to 
see in them an expression of trustfulness, a 
spiritual hope, as if they saw something 
beyond the unspeakable sadness of the hour. 



LETTER XIV. 289 

The figure of our Saviour is touchingly real. 
The drooping of the precious head — the 
muscles relaxed — it is all Death ; and never, 
before or since has the great, sad tragedy been 
so sublimely told. The colors are wonderful 
— rich, mellow, and harmonious ; and we leave 
the cathedral with tears in our eyes, thinking 
only of Christ crucified, and for us. 

Antwerp, August 11th. — My dear : 

My last words to you from a foreign land! 
We are shopping, packing, speaking our 
adieux, for to-day at three P. m. the Nord- 
land sails, and we turn our faces toward our 
native land. We are glad to go, and we are 
sorry to leave. 




LETTER XV. 

On Shipboard. 

Our first hours on board were busy ones, 
making our state-room seem home-like, deco- 
rating it with little souvenirs, and disposing 
boxes and bundles in out-of-the-way corners. 
Placing in vases lovely flowers, which friendly 
hands had placed in ours, with best wishes for 
a ^ Bon voyage.' As glimpses of the chalk- 
cliffs of England could be caught in the 
distance, we turned our faces toward that shore, 
with loving thoughts of one dear to us, whom 
we leave on British soil. ^ We were a-hungered, 
and he gave us meat; strangers, and he took 
us in,' and God cares for such, and He will 
protect. 

After a good night's rest, for the next 



292 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

few days out it seemed enough for us to sit 
silent, as silent as women can be, and think. 
Think of all the wonderful sights we had seen, 
and carefully store them away in memory's 
niche for future enjoyment. Think, too, of 
home and the loved ones there, and bless the 
steamer's big wheel, whose every turn carried 
us nearer to them. 

Amongst our pleasant fellow-voyagers we 

have Eev. Mr. G ^r, of the ' Old South ;' 

who is, if not all Boston, a valued bit of it. 
Prof. Berlitz is also one of us, and adds to his 
many accomplishments a knowledge of 'mal 
de mer ' in all languages. 

We have had head winds, and much stormy 
weather, but we are glad to have a chance 
given us to see old ocean in all her varied 
moods, and can scarcely say in which we like 
her best. 

New York, Amei^ica, August 24:th, 1888. 
— « On land again ! Our good steamer brought 
us safely over. ^ Slow, but sure ' was her 
motto. 

Our sailing into New York harbor at just 
sunset, with the gorgeous colors of the western 



LETTER XV. 293 

sky, and the purest blue above our heads, was 

to us a pretty welcome ; and, with hearts full 

of gratitude, we joined voices in singing — 

' My country ! 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty.' 

In a few hours more we shall be steaming 
toward the dear old ^ hub ' — Boston — home ; 
and shall soon be with you, dear mother, 
my queen of queens. But our pleasure in 
anticipation is not entirely painless, for here 
we part with one of our trio, whose kindly 
care of us, for the last few months, has added 
greatly to our happiness. 

Boston, August 21th. — Europe, in many 
ways, is delightful, and the memories of our 
perfect trip will certainly be a joy to us 
forever ; but we wonder that any Ameri- 
can can choose expatriation, for we return 
from all the fascinations of the * other 
side ' — certainly enjoyed and seen at their 
best — thanking God that we are free Ameri- 
can citizens. Some one has said that ' different 
descriptions of the same countries are ever 
like old coats turned.' And George Mac- 
donald writes, * Fact, at best, is but a garment 



294 A BUNDLE OF LETTERS. 

of truth, which has ten thousand changes of 
raiment, woven in the same loom.' Many a 
made-over article gives enjoyment and satis- 
faction. If my words give these to my readers 
I am satisfied. 



Finis. 



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